Confusion grips Big Tech over exemptions from Trump tariffs – Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON — American technology companies hoping for relief from President Trump’s trade war with China grappled with further uncertainty Monday, left to decipher whether a government policy exempting businesses that are core to the U.S. economy from crippling tariffs could be relied upon.
An industry that plans product launches and manufacturing years in advance faced four days of vacillation from the White House, which appeared torn over how much assistance to provide U.S. companies that make the nation’s smartphones and watches, computers, tablets and semiconductors.
Within the administration, concern had begun to percolate over projected price increases for popular American products, such as the iPhone, which analysts said could triple in cost if Apple were forced in a trade war to manufacture the devices at home. An announcement Friday, exempting technology products from most of Trump’s tariff hike of 145% on imports from China, was meant to buy companies time to prepare, according to an official familiar with the matter.
But it also reinforced a reliance on Chinese manufacturing that has driven Trump’s aggressive trade policies in the first place, prompting him to vow, in one form or another, to onshore some of the industry’s most complicated supply chains.
The result was a temporary rally Monday for tech stocks on Wall Street, followed by a whimper and a second rebound by the closing bell — yet another day of turbulence in markets that have come to react to the president’s every word on tariff policy.
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