TECH NEWS – Products imported from China could face a huge price hike if the president-elect returns to office.

CTA reports on what Trump plans to do if he returns to the White House. One of the ideas is to impose heavy taxes that could devastate the consumer market. The former US president wants to boost domestic production so that consumers prefer to choose American products. This could promote industrialization, but ultimately the American people would pay the price.

If we were to buy non-Chinese products in the US, we would be hit with a 10% tariff. This could be a problem for consumer hardware because many devices are made in China and products from China would be taxed at 60%. PC hardware would also see a significant price increase. According to TRW (Trade Partnership Worldwide) and the CTA, cell phones, laptops, consoles, and computer components would suffer if this additional tax were introduced.

Laptops and tablets would increase in price by 46%, consoles by 40%, and smartphones by 26%, and the research suggests that the 60% tariff could lead to much production being moved to other countries (such as Vietnam) rather than the US. Thus, the imposed tax would backfire, as it would not achieve significant domestic production, and demand would also fall, as a sudden (minimum) 26% price increase would do so. The result would be less tax revenue, which would set the economy back and even cause a recession.

A plan to impose a tariff on GPUs has recently surfaced that the Biden administration would reinstate a 25% tax on GPUs from China that was supposed to be implemented during the Trump presidency, but has been repeatedly delayed. If Trump is elected, the price of hardware will increase by at least 10%, and that is still an optimistic forecast.

Source: WCCFTech, CTA