80% of iPhones for the US are made in China: why Trump excluded tech from duties
The silence in recent days from Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg and other tech industry leaders as their companies lost trillions on the stock market, writes Wired, "was both deafening and strategic".
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"What happened to the CEOs of the big tech companies on duties?" headlined the US edition of Wired, and the answer came a few hours later: Trump has excluded smartphones, PCs and chip compenents from duties, including against China.
The silence in recent days from Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg and other tech industry leaders as their companies lost trillions on the stock market, Wired continued, "was both deafening and strategic".
Their work behind the scenes was probably decisive for the turnaround. On the other hand, according to Counterpoint data, about 80 per cent of the iPhones for sale in the US are made in China, which makes one realise the relevance of Donald Trump's decision to exempt smartphones, computers and other electronic devices from reciprocal customs duties, including the 125 per cent duty imposed on Chinese imports.
"I think in the end the CEOs of the big tech companies spoke out and the White House had to understand and listen to the situation, it would have been Armageddon," Dan Ives, global head of technology research at Wedbush Securities, told Cnbc. Trump's dietroftont thus comes in the wake of concerns that the price of gadgets would skyrocket, with reverberations in Europe as well, since many of these devices and their components are made in China.
"It would be complex for US hardware manufacturers to change supply chains in the short term: replacement costs are very high," Andrea Rangone, professor of Digital Business Innovation at the School of Management of the Politecnico di Milano and co-founder of the Digital Innovation Observatories, tells ANSA.
