Trump exempts smartphones from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs
www.ft.com
Dispensation is first sign of softening of levies against China and provides a big boost for Apple

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.12-132331/https://www.ft.com/content/3eb48a07-7cb0-4a44-9159-eb5b402c2fec

The Trump administration has excluded smartphones from its steep “reciprocal” tariffs as it battles to calm global markets by tempering its approach to the multifront trade war launched by the president.

According to a notice posted late on Friday night by Customs and Border Patrol, which is responsible for collecting tariffs, smartphones, along with routers and selected computers and laptops, would be exempt from reciprocal tariffs, which include the 125 per cent levies Donald Trump has imposed on Chinese imports.

  • Railcar8095@lemm.eeEnglish
    18·
    4 days ago

    You’re replying to me, so tell me please about the context I’m missing

    • merde alors@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      2·
      4 days ago

      let’s start from the beginning

      Don’t forget all smartphones—except iPhones of course—still use Android, which is a Google OS with Google services. In the smartphone world, there’s no real alternative to American companies. It’s pretty much an American monopoly.

      There are a handful of smartphones that have other OS, and you can have degoogled Android without Google services.

      It’s not for everyone, but there are options.

      we can degoogle android as much as we can, but we can’t degoogle completely unless we deandroid

      meaning, it’s not a “real alternative to American companies”. Which, i understood what your comment suggested a degoogled android to be (because, you see, that was what the previous comment was about)

      Tell me what is the issue with the code, not with the coder.

      Still fell free to use a non Android/iOS option, but I’m sure you are using OEM Android/iOS, making this complain blatantly empty.

      you replied with that comment and made it about me for who knows what reason. You also needed to make an assumption to feel even more righteous

      If you read carefully, in the context of the comment it’s replying to, you’ll see that it wasn’t a complaint

      the main point here was that "i wasn’t complaining in the previous message " but you were offended by the possibility of you missing something; because if you think that it’s a complaint, it has to be a complaint. Who am i to tell you that i wasn’t complaining in the comment i wrote. So, you of course deserved some explanation :

      You’re replying to me, so tell me please about the context I’m missing

      And here we are.

      It’s raining outside and we’re far from home on a Sunday. You’re lucky today, I have all the time and the patience you need.