Trump Customs Customs could pick up prices of laptops, smartphones and artificial intelligence

The world’s most valuable manufacturer of chips and the world’s largest contractor electronics manufacturer announced In November, FoxConn built a large factory in Guadalajara, Mexico, to compile Nvidia’s artificial intelligence servers.

Starting from the beginning of 2025. Nvidia will start producing their highly sought after GB200 NVL72 servers in Mexico, two companies said.

This announcement reflects what could be in danger if the general customs of President Donald Trump enters into force. Trump It is expected to discover more details on Saturday about which specific customs will be put on imports from China, Canada and Mexico.

WITH AppleWho,, Microsoft and Tesla Reporting their December quarterly earnings this week, investors will want to know that Trump’s threats to comprehensive customs duties on the largest trade partners of the country can influence their business.

But those companies got into a deal with proposed tariffs to a wide consumption products from China in 2018, as well as Chinese retaliation. But Trump’s proposed customs on electronics from Mexico would be new wrinkles.

This is because many companies have particularly expanded production in the country in the so -called nearshoring effort in response to disorders regarding covid and customs duties from the first Trump administration.

“If we increase customs duties for Mexico, it is actually punished by companies that were very advanced and try to make big steps and restructure their supply chain,” said Richard Barnett, Director of the Supplyframe Marketing, Siemens Branch that produces software that accompanies electronic component prices and delivery deadlines .

Importing Mexico electronic products increased from $ 86 billion in 2019 to $ 103 billion in 2023, or about 18% of the total import of electronics, according to the International Trade Commission. This is the second largest source of imports of electronic products in the US after China, which reported $ 146 billion in imports in 2023.

In addition to Foxconna, Chinese Electronics Manufacturers Lenovo and Hisense In the past few years, the turbulent announcements about the construction of the factory in Mexico. Flex, a contractual manufacturer of gadgets and electronics based in Singapore, says he is the largest exporter in the Mexican state of Jalisco.

Trump may want to close a “hole” in which Chinese companies can avoid the customs expansion in Mexico, said Simon Geale, Executive Vice President Proxime, a consulting company for a supply chain that is part of Bain & Co.

“If you look at Chinese investments in Mexico, they have increased insignificant in the last three to five years,” Geale said.

Even with the growth of Mexico, China is still the largest source of electronics imports in the US. It accounts for 78% of smartphones production, 87% video game console and 79% of laptops, according to the Consumer Technology Association, or CTA. About a quarter of Chinese imports were electronic products.

While the products of high values ​​and high margins like Nvidia’s GPUs are less sensitive to tariffs, many of the secondary parts needed to make Data centers worth more billions of dollars – Parts for communication, storage and management of power supply, for example – are sensitive to prices and imports, Barnett said. Supplyframe’s price index shows a 6% increase compared to the previous year for electronic components in the fourth quarter of 2024, after Trump started threatening customs duties.

Nvidija Jensen Huang CEO was asked about the potential influence of Customs in November, shortly after Trump’s electoral victory.

“Whatever the new administration decides, we will, of course, support the administration, which is our biggest mandate. And then after that, we do the best we can and just as we always do,” Huang said at the time, adding that the company would respect regulations .

FoxConn did not respond to the comment request, and Nvidia refused to comment.

Merchant groups, academics and even the head of the World Trade Organization warn In order for trade wars to encourage Trump customs to slow down global trade and raise prices for consumers. Analysts They said that Trump’s administration may be viewed in customs duties as in negotiating with other countries about questions such as drug trade and migration, although the president denied it.

“Four large implications of customs duties are more pricing, less decreasing rates by FED, slower growth and less new jobs,” said Brett House, professional practice at Columbia Business School.

It is still not clear how the tariffs could be this time.

During the campaign, Trump spoke about customs by up to 60% on China and 10% on all other imports. In his first week at the office, Trump has given up the largest customs duties, discussing 10% of the 10% duties for Mexico and Canada and customs duties of 25% on goods from China.

Customs of 60% for China would be a big blow to American consumers, according to claim report by CTA.

Prices of laptops and tablets could rise by 45%, video game console by as much as 40%, and smartphones by as much as 26%. It’s an increase of $ 213 at an average smartphone price, CTA states.

“This will affect the unit sale, which means that each product will go significantly,” said CEO Gary Shapiro.

The key difference between these customs duties and those from 2018 was that Trump threatened with the introduction of customs duties that could be applied to all products, while the 2018 customs duties were aimed at specific codes and product categories, and companies could handle Request for exemption for your goods.

It remains to be seen whether Trump will continue to introduce customs on all sides. The Washington Post reported this month that Trump’s administration considers the introduction of only compensation on certain sectors.

Columbus consulting experts, consulting companies focused on retailers, say their clients have already diverted the budgets in accordance with increased costs. The company recommends clients to give up drastic measures – such as moving production to other countries or aggressively accumulating additional stocks in advance – until they know exactly what to enter into force.

“We need to see the definition of what will be targeted, how much and when, and specifically which produces,” said Jeff Gregg, a partner at Columbus Consulting. “Until we get more details about it, excessive response can only bring you to a dangerous position.”

Attempts to alleviate the tariff costs can eventually be expensive, whether it is an increased price of transportation or opportunistic expense of capital binding in supplies in supplies, said GRAGG. Some companies will have to transfer costs to consumers, he said.

But the current uncertainty about import duties is not necessarily a major change compared to the past few years.

Some electronics still have customs duties from Trump’s first term. For example, semiconductors from China currently have a customs of 50%. Biden’s administration mainly maintained a regime of import duties from the first Trump administration, giving companies for several years with less drastic changes, but many still had to fight with import duties.

“The supply chains advance to predictability, and the only thing that is predictable about Trump is that he will be unpredictable,” Geale said.