We're roughly six months into Donald Trump's trade war, and tech firms remain in a fog, unsure what tariffs or retaliations could be coming next.
To shed light on this struggle, we invite you to join us for an Ars Live talk at 1 pm ET on Thursday, July 24, with Consumer Technology Association (CTA) Vice President of International Trade Edward Brzytwa. We'll be discussing how tech firms are responding to tariffs so far and how looming chip tariffs could pose the biggest hurdle yet in sourcing alternative supply chains. And anyone joining will have an opportunity to ask their biggest questions about how tariffs could impact consumer tech.
Before Trump even took office, experts had warned that his global trade war—imposing tariffs on imports of various goods from various countries in a bid to strike more favorable trade deals for the US—risked spiking prices of popular tech products like laptops, game consoles, and smartphones.
As Trump has wielded tariffs as a trade weapon, tech firms have had to stay on their toes, while sourcing short-term fixes to keep consumer costs low and avoid losing customers through potential price increases.
The CTA represents firms comprising the $505 billion US consumer technology industry and has been monitoring tariff impacts while advocating for sensible tariff regimes that acknowledge supply chain limitations in the tech sector.
A key issue for tech firms is sourcing alternative supply chains that can keep their costs low while uncertainty reigns. Trump's trade deals with many countries—perhaps most notably China and the European Union—remain in tense negotiations, each one potentially affecting their manufacturing costs.
And while at least one analyst has suggested that the US and China may extend a 90-day truce ahead of an August deadline, perhaps the biggest confounding factor for businesses attempting to align supply chain choices with predictable tariff costs is looming chip tariffs. Trump has suggested those could come as soon as August 1.
As tech firms brace for chip tariffs, Brzytwa will share CTA's forecast based on a survey of industry experts, revealing the unique sourcing challenges chip tariffs will likely pose. It's a particular pain point that Trump seems likely to impose taxes not just on imports of semiconductors but of any downstream product that includes a chip.
Because different electronics parts are typically assembled in different countries, supply chains for popular products have suddenly become a winding path, with potential tariff obstacles cropping up at any turn.
To Trump, complicating supply chains seems to be the point, intending to divert entire supply chains into the country to make the US a tech manufacturing hub, supposedly at the expense of his prime trade war target, China—which today is considered a world manufacturing "superpower."
However, The New York Times this week suggested that Trump's bullying tactics aren't working on China, and experts suggest that now his chip tariffs risk not just spiking prices but throttling AI innovation in the US—just as China's open source AI models shake up markets globally.
Brzytwa will share CTA research showing how the trade war has rattled, and will likely continue to rattle, tech firms into the foreseeable future. He'll explain why tech firms can't quickly or cheaply divert chip supply chains—and why policy that neglects to understand tech firms' positions could be a lose-lose, putting Americans in danger of losing affordable access to popular tech without achieving Trump's goal of altering China's trade behavior.
GoPro’s refreshed Max 360 action camera is down to an all-time low price