Televisions
Sourcing Guide & Market Intelligence

Tariffs to escalate prices for electronics and computing equipment

• The Trump administration’s reciprocating tariffs, which will increase the tariff on all products imported from nearly all US trade partners, are set to take effect on August 7 and are likely to drive price increases across a wide range of sectors.
• The United States is highly reliant on imported electronics, communication equipment, and computing devices, having imported more than $472 billion worth of electronics in 2024, or about half of the total domestic supply. Starting August 7, imports from key computer and electronics producers such as China (54,0%), Japan (15.0%), South Korea (15.0%), Thailand (19.0%), Vietnam (20.0%), and Taiwan (20.0%) will be subject to new tariff rates. Trade deals for many countries are still being negotiated, and these rates are subject to change.
• For this reason, the US electronics industry is highly exposed to price increases and supply chain disruptions when the tariffs take effect. For example, the cost of iPhones, which are predominantly manufactured in China, could rise by as much as 43.0% in response to tariffs, according to projections by Rosenblatt Securities.
• Overall, the Yale Budget Lab anticipates tariffs will increase the average cost of computers and electronics by 18.7% in the short term.
• The tariffs exempt semiconductors, limiting the cost increases for domestic electronics manufacturers, but the lack of domestic electronics assembly capacity means that this exemption will have a limited effect.

Aluminum and steel tariffs are extended to the metals content of imported appliances

• On June 3rd, the Trump Administration announced an increase of aluminum and steel tariffs to 50.0%, up from the 25.0% rate imposed a few months prior.
• The administration has since introduced plans to apply these tariffs to the aluminum and steel content of imported appliances starting June 23rd.
• Under the new rule, imported appliances and appliance components will face 50.0% tariffs on the value of their aluminum and steel content. Aluminum and Steel account for more than a third of the total value of the average appliance, meaning this rule change will significantly increase the average import fees on appliances.
• In response to this rule change, appliance retailers, such as Home Depot, have indicated they will rely more heavily on domestic manufacturers to avoid the tariffs, creating a risk of shortages and long order backlogs. Alternatively, Walmart’s CEO has indicated the company will raise prices to compensate for the higher appliance costs.
• While differing tariff response strategies will result in varying supply chain and price impacts, the Yale Budget Lab projects machinery and equipment prices to rise by 9.4% on average due to this policy.

The FBI has warned that Chinese government hackers could disrupt critical infrastructure in the United States in the event of a conflict with China.

• The FBI announced on January 31 that it had thwarted an attempt by the Chinese government hacking group “Volt Typhoon” to plant malware onto electric power, water treatment and transportation systems in the United States using compromised end-of-life small office/home office (SOHO) routers from Cisco and Netgear. End-of-life devices have been discontinued by manufacturers and no longer receive software patches to eliminate vulnerabilities, which makes these devices attractive targets for hackers.
• US officials assess that China might disrupt critical US infrastructure to prevent the United States from responding to a Chinese attack on Taiwan. Volt Typhoon has been particularly active in Hawaii and Guam, which house some of the largest US military and naval installations in the Pacific.
• The FBI announced on September 18 that it had disrupted a botnet from another Chinese government hacking group known as “Flax Typhoon”. Flax Typhoon had infected 260,000 networking devices around the world, including SOHO routers, internet protocol (IP) cameras, digital video recorders (DVRs), and network-attached storage (NAS) devices.n
• The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) recommends that organizations use its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) Catalog to identify any vulnerabilities in their systems. Furthermore, organizations can subscribe to receive KEV Catalog updates from the agency and may contact the agency for advice.