Trump’s Tariffs and the Cost of Technology: Will Tech Get More Expensive?
Politics is a tricky subject. More than 77 million people voted for Donald Trump in the 2024 US Presidential election and whilst some of them saw him as the lesser of two evils, there must have been some who actually think he’s the right person for the job.
As a result, his acolytes will be quick to suggest that the tariffs that he is in the middle of introducing are actually a good thing, even whilst they have sent the stock market into free fall.
The question is, will the tariffs have much of an impact on the cost of technology moving forward?
The Tariffs Explained
In short, tariffs are taxes that are charged on goods that are bought from other countries. They tend to be a percentage of the value of a product, so if something is worth £100 and a 25% tariff is put on it, then it will cost £125.
The tax has to be paid to the government, but the majority of the time, the cost of any tariff will be passed on to the consumer rather than soaked up by the company responsible for the creation of any specific product. Donald Trump has long argued that the United States of America should use tariffs in order to boost the country’s economy and now he’s putting that theory into action.
@theeconomist President Trump’s tariff plan is the biggest break in American trade policy in over a century. It’s also one of the most profound and harmful mistakes of the modern era. Our economics editor, @henrycurr explains why it’s so utterly deluded.@ #donaldtrump #economy#unitedstates#news #economics#china#tariff #dollar ♬ original sound – The Economist
On the face of it, the convicted rapist in the White House is using the tariffs to try to encourage people to buy more American-made goods, given the fact that goods made elsewhere will cost more. There is also a sense that it might encourage manufacturers to make their goods in the US rather than elsewhere, if it is cheaper for them to do so.
There are many cynical people, however, who believe that the tariffs have been announced to do nothing more than to crash the economy, allowing his millionaire and billionaire friends to buy stocks when they’re low and make themselves richer.
What it Could Mean for the Price of Tech
The tariffs are one of the most talked-about things in the world at the moment, largely thanks to the fact that the world economy has reacted with shock to Donald Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on countries around the world.
As far as the tech industry is concerned, Trump’s move will likely leave it in a precarious situation on account of the fact that many of the countries that make up their supply chain are being hit. China is one of the worst hit of all of the countries, including an increase in tariffs because of the country’s decision to put reciprocal tariffs in place on American companies.
Reporter: Have you talked to any tech leaders over the weekend about tariffs.
Trump: I’ve talked to the biggest in the world. I talked to the biggest of them all, many of them. You know what they said? We don’t blame you.
Reporter: Who did you talk to?
Trump: I don’t want to… pic.twitter.com/cny7QpwTin
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 7, 2025
With countless major tech firms getting parts from China, that will see prices rise in the coming weeks, months and even years. An analyst from Quilter Cheviot, a global technology analysis firm, believes that the tariffs and reciprocal tariffs will have a ‘profound impact’ on global supply chains.
Ban Barringer said, “Donald Trump’s tariffs are ultimately bad news for consumer electronics. No one knows how much…devices will now cost – there is still a lot to work out”. Nintendo, for example, has delayed the launch of the Switch 2 console because of the ‘potential impact of tariffs’.
Should You Upgrade Your iPhone?
If you are an iPhone user then you might well be wondering if now is the time to look to upgrade your device. That will also be the thought process of users of iPads and Macs as well, given the fact that Apple is one of the ‘most tariff-exposed companies out there’, according to Barringer.
It is possible that the cost of an Apple device will go up considerably in the coming months, if the company decides to pass on the cost of the tariffs to consumers. With as much as 80% of the iPhone made in China, huge tariffs on goods from the area imposed by Trump will inevitably see costs rise.
Although this is only going to be true for America, it is difficult to see a world in which Apple would raise the cost of its products in the United States of America but not do so in the UK, say. Even if Apple does what Trump wants and moves a large amount of its manufacturing to the US, that in itself is unlikely to make things cheaper when you consider that they are currently based in China because it is cheaper for them to make the phones there.
Apple has a wide profit margin, which means the cost of the tariffs could be absorbed by the company easily enough, but that isn’t really how capitalism tends to work.