Tariffs being imposed on electronics imports to the US and an added 50% levy on copper products like power cables and USB cables have heightened concerns about higher costs to buyers and long-term trade consequences for future White House administrations.
Reciprocal tariffs imposed by the Trump administration are set to take effect on Thursday, with the rates on 70 different countries ranging from 10% to 41% and most between 15% and 25%. Trump also announced on a CNBC interview that a special tariff for semiconductors will be announced in a week or so, but he gave no details. "We want them made in the United States," Trump said.
Shipments of goods to the US now floating on the water aboard ocean freighters may begin paying higher reciprocal tariff rates in September or October, according to Jimmy Ting, an licensed customs broker and president of Great World Express & Customs Service in South San Francisco.
Separately, 50% semi-refined copper tariffs took effect Aug. 1, which will impact many of Ting’s clients who import electrical products and electrical cables. The Aug. 1 refined copper tariffs were not a surprise, Ting said, after President Trump raised concerns earlier this year about national security concerns over a shortage of copper. However, with the Aug. 1 copper tariffs, it became clear at least four 8544 tariff subheadings would be subject to the 50% levy: 8544.42.10, 8544.42.20, 8544.42.90 and 8544.10.
“These four numbers are very important as they cover most electrical cables, ranging from power cables to USB cables,” Ting said.
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Trump has argued the tariffs have already raised hundreds of billions of dollars for the US treasury, and have induced many companies abroad to invest in US-based manufacturing. But Ting was having nothing to do with it.
“That view is just putting lipstick on a pig,” Ting said. “The fact remains that it’s the importer who is paying these tariffs to the US treasury. Sure, it is raising billions of dollars for the US government, but it’s at the expense of American businesses and ultimately the American consumer.”
Trading partner backlash
Ting said the long-term damage of Trump tariffs will be felt in US relationships with foreign trading partners.
“Very few people are pointing out the real long term damage these tariffs are having on our relationships with other countries around the world,” Ting said. “There isn’t a single deal negotiated where the other country didn’t feel like they were getting their twisted or being extorted.
“It’s impossible to calculate the long term damage we are doing. Future American presidents will face a very difficult decision when it comes to continuing or unwinding these deals. When the basis for a relationship is uneven and one-sided, it’s bound to cause problems. Every country is going to be looking for ways around these deals.”
Analyst Jack Gold at J. Gold Associates said the 50% copper tariffs will be difficult for importers to swallow. “Any price increase—and tariffs are a price increase on raw materials and finished goods—will have an effect on ultimate prices from creators of electronics,” he told Fierce. “Tariffs are a tax, pure and simple. It’s paid by users of the products, not the producers of the products.”
The Global Electronics Association last week said the 50% tariff on copper products will “hit US printed circuit board (PCB) fabricators especially hard by raising the cost of a critical input that can make up to 60% of a PCB’s value.” Because there’s no largescale domestic supply of copper, GEA predicted US electronics manufacturers will face higher costs and delay investment and “potentially even cut jobs.”
GEA concluded the copper tariffs undercut Trump’s goal of rebuilding American manufacturing.
Like Ting, Gold was skeptical about the dollars raised for the US treasury through tariffs. “Tariffs help with the US deficit just as any tax would, but tariffs will not bring jobs back to the US in the short term because supply chains and factories can’t be built overnight,” Gold said.
Gold presented a pessimistic view that Trump’s arguing tariffs will bring back jobs “is just an excuse and the administration is seeing tariffs as a way to raise taxes under the cover of being pro-USA even while cutting taxes on individuals.”