The US-China trade war might soon have an effect on computer hardware. A new listing reveals a new 25% import tax for electronics made in China by USD companies.

The listing is revealing "electronic integrated circuits: processors and controllers," "electronic integrated circuits: memories," "electronic integrated circuits: amplifiers," "electronic integrated circuits: other," which covers pretty much any PC hardware. This new info was spotted by Flyordie over at TPU who noticed the new import taxes on CNN being listed in this document, and that is not good news, especially for US residing folks:

This new tax takes effect on August 23, 2018. Pretty much if you spend 500 USD on hardware, it would now cost your 625 USD. If you reside in other parts of the globe like EU, this has no effect on you as long as the product do not need to be cross-imported though the USA.

Intel or NVIDIA for example fabs their PCBs in China, and then often ships them to the US HUB, once the fully assembled product reaches the EMEA region, that would invoke a 25% increase in cost. However, I foresee many bypasses, e.g. electronics being shipped to say Taiwan, rebadged and shipped to the USA as a TW product, simply to bypass the tariff.





