Apple’s exemption from ‘reciprocal’ tariff won’t last too long, per Trump administration

In case the continuously evolving tariff news hasn’t been confusing enough, there’s now another twist to the story. According to the Trump administration, the exemption from the 125% reciprocal tariff is only temporary, and a tariff will apply to smartphones, laptops, and more in “a month or two.” On Friday night, the US Customs and Border Protection published some exclusions for Trump’s new 125% reciprocal tariff on China, as well as the baseline 10% global tariff. These exclusions include “smartphones, laptop computers, hard drives and computer processors and memory chips.” It’s worth noting that Apple still would’ve been subject to a 20% “fentanyl tariff”, which President Trump emphasized in a post on Truth Social today. In short: the total tariff on China specifically would’ve been 145% (125% reciprocal + 20% fentanyl) – but now it’s just 20%. However, the exemption from the reciprocal tariff isn’t a “permanent sort of exemption”, according to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. ... Read full article.