Your iPhone will not get costlier for now thanks to new tariff rules

iPhones

Good news for Apple fans — your favorite iPhones aren’t getting pricier, at least not right now. There was a lot of worry these past few weeks that iPhones and other gadgets could become much more expensive because of new taxes the US government was planning on products coming in from China. If this had happened, Apple would’ve faced a massive 145% fee on these imports. Naturally, people started guessing that Apple might increase product prices to make up for the extra cost.

But thankfully, that’s not happening. According to Bloomberg, the White House has decided to give tariff exemptions to smartphones, laptops, and a few other tech products. This means they won’t be charged the extra fees for now. US Customs and Border Protection made this announcement late last Friday, saying that these items won’t be part of the huge 125% China tariff or even the regular 10% global tariff on most other countries.

This is great news not just for Apple but for people everywhere who love their gadgets. These devices — like phones, laptops, computer parts, and memory chips — aren’t usually made in the US, and building factories there would take years. So if these tariffs had gone through, it would’ve hit both the companies and the customers pretty hard.

Also, some good news for the chip-making world — the machines used to make semiconductors won’t face the new tariffs either. This is helpful for big companies like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, which is investing in the US and for other chipmakers too.

Still, it’s not completely smooth sailing for the tech industry. There’s talk that the government might come up with different tariffs for specific tech products in the future. But for now, the decision to stick to a 10% tariff on electronics is a huge relief for Apple and its customers, especially those who had rushed to buy their gadgets early, fearing a price hike.