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Big Tech is now slightly less silent on Trump’s tariffs
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images
President Donald Trump’s tariffs on goods imported from Mexico, Canada, and China are in effect, but Big Tech companies have remained mostly silent despite the potential impact tariffs could have on their businesses.
I’ve written about this twice already: once shortly after Trump announced them in February, and again a week later after the initial 10 percent tariff on China went into effect and the Mexico and Canada tariffs had been paused. In both articles, The Verge reached out to many companies in Big Tech and adjacent industries, and the vast majority of them declined to comment or didn’t reply at all. The ones that did reply usually gave generic statements.
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Lego, BMW, and Foxconn comment on Trump’s tariffs.
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Uranium is in the crosshairs of the US-Canada tariff battle
President Donald Trump’s tariff threats could raise the price of uranium used to fuel US nuclear reactors, which could have ripple effects on a tenuous nuclear renaissance spurred by the growth of energy-hungry data centers.
The US gets more than a quarter of its uranium from Canada, more than from any other country. The Trump administration imposed new tariffs on uranium and other goods on Canada this week, which he soon paused after a stock market drop and sell-off.
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The Trump tariffs on Mexico and Canada are mostly on hold.
The suspension effectively abandons many of the tariffs that Mr. Trump had placed on Canadian and Mexican products — levies he said were necessary to stem the flow of drugs and migrants into the United States.
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What’s an import?
US consumers hoping to avoid price increases associated with Trump’s tariffs can’t just “buy American,” not with supply chains spanning North America and the world. The New York Times explores the impact tariffs will have on US automakers who are particularly at risk given the number of cars assembled in Mexico and Canada — with US-made engines and transmissions — before being shipped back across the border for purchase.
Which car is more “American?” -
Best Buy and Target CEOs say prices are about to go up because of tariffs
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Target and Best Buy say Trump’s tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China could raise prices in their stores as soon as this week. During an interview with CNBC, Target CEO Brian Cornell said consumers will “likely see prices increase over the next couple of days,” while Best Buy CEO Corie Barry similarly told investors that more expensive prices are “highly likely.”
Cornell told CNBC that half of Target’s goods come from the United States, but the company depends on Mexico for “a significant amount” of fruits and vegetables during winter, potentially leading to more expensive strawberries, bananas, and avocados. “Those are categories where we’ll try to protect pricing, but the consumer will likely see price increases over the next couple of days,” Cornell added.
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“None of that pause stuff.”
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick tells Fox Business that President Trump’s administration may announce some kind of changes to the tariffs in place on Mexico and Canada tomorrow, though it apparently won’t be a full pause.
“I think he’s gonna figure out, you do more and I’ll meet you in the middle some way, and we’re gonna probably be announcing that tomorrow,” says Lutnick.
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Donald Trump’s tariffs, explained
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images
If you live in the US, congratulations — you are now a foot soldier in what has been called “the dumbest trade war in history.” And if you live in one of the top three countries that trade most with the US (Canada, Mexico, and China), apologies: you are part of this as well.
Donald Trump loves tariffs despite regularly misrepresenting how they work, and after months of saying he would impose them on goods coming into the US, he made good on his promise this week: there is a 10 percent tax on all products from China imposed as of February, plus an extra 10 percent announced this week. After pausing tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods last month, those also apply as of March 4th — a whopping 25 percent on our neighbors that will affect everything from lumber to tomatoes.
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Trump imposes tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China
Image: The Verge, Getty Images
President Donald Trump has followed through on his temporarily delayed tariff threats. The US will impose a 25 percent tariff on goods imported from Mexico and Canada, while China will face an additional 10 percent tariff on top of the 10 percent tax previously enacted.
On Monday, Trump dashed hopes that a deal could be made to prevent the US from imposing tariffs on Mexico and Canada. “No room left for Mexico or for Canada,” Trump said during a press conference. “They’re all set. They go into effect tomorrow.”
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Trump’s tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico will take effect March 4th
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images
President Donald Trump says his 25 percent tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, and additional 10 percent tariff on Chinese imports, will go into effect as scheduled on March 4th, unless imports of drugs including fentanyl are stopped or “seriously limited.”
“Drugs are still pouring into our Country from Mexico and Canada at very high and unacceptable levels,” Trump writes in a Truth Social post, without elaborating on the source of his information. “A large percentage of these Drugs, much of them in the form of Fentanyl, are made in, and supplied by, China.”
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Trump threatens 25 percent ‘and higher’ tariff on chips.
Alongside Trump’s upcoming 25 percent auto tariffs, chips will see tariffs as well. In response to a reporter’s question about tariffs on pharma and chips (thanks, C-SPAN):
It’ll be 25% and higher, and it’ll go very substantially higher over the course of a year, but we want to give them time to come in because, as you know, when they come into the United States and they have their plant or factory here, there is no tariff. So we want to give them a little bit of a chance.
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Framework says its laptops shouldn’t get stung by Trump tariffs but modules might cost more.
CEO Nirav Patel tells The Verge:
“Because we manufacture Framework Laptops and Mainboards in Taiwan, we have limited impact from the additional recently introduced tariffs. Some of our modules are manufactured in China, so we are taking this into account for future module pricing for US customers in the Framework Marketplace as we also continue to diversify our supply base.”
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Acer is the first to raise laptop prices because of Trump
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Acer CEO and chairman Jason Chen says your laptop will cost an extra 10 percent in the United States next month — and that his rivals might attempt price gouging if they think you’ll pay even more.
“We think 10pc probably will be the default price increase because of the import tax. It’s very straightforward,” he told The Telegraph, referring to President Trump’s 10 percent tariff on incoming goods from China. While big tech companies have generally been quiet on how they’ll respond to Trump tariffs, Acer says it just made the decision to increase prices last week, and it’ll take effect a few weeks from now.
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Small businesses are already feeling Trump’s tariffs
Image: The Verge, Getty Images
President Donald Trump’s tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico are presented by the president and his boosters as a boon to American businesses. If products from China are more expensive, the argument goes, then people will instead buy from counterparts based in the US.
But for small businesses manufacturing in the US, the tariffs are already causing their costs to go up — which, in turn, will force them to raise prices for consumers.
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More Trump tariffs.
The president signed an order on Monday imposing 25 percent tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum to the US, CNN reports. The president had said on Sunday that he planned to announce the tariffs.
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Big Tech is still silent on Trump’s tariffs
Image: The Verge, Getty Images
President Donald Trump’s 10 percent tariff on goods imported from China has been in effect for nearly a week. Ahead of the tariff going into effect, I wrote that “Big Tech has been silent on Trump’s tariffs” — almost no one in the industry had a public reaction or said how they would respond. A week later, that hasn’t really changed.
Myself and my colleagues have contacted a wide range of tech companies multiple times since the tariffs on China (and the now-paused tariffs on Canada and Mexico) were announced at the beginning of the month. Here’s what we’ve heard back – or haven’t heard:
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Trump suspends order that created delivery chaos
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images
President Donald Trump has paused the removal of the de minimis exemption on goods from China, temporarily putting an end to the confusion and high fees that have plagued both customers and businesses over the past few days. The de minimis exemption allows packages valued at less than $800 to enter the country duty free, but the exemption had been removed as part of Trump’s tariffs against China that went into effect this week.
The pause is only temporary. It was issued this morning through an executive order, which says that the de minimis exemption will be removed again when the Secretary of Commerce notifies the administration that “adequate systems are in place to fully and expediently process and collect tariff revenue.”
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Shipping companies warn of delays and new charges from Trump’s China tariffs
In the two days since President Trump enacted new tariffs on goods from China, none of the major US shipping companies and couriers have yet announced detailed policies on new fees, though some have warned of possible delays and disruption. Despite that, both senders and recipients are already reporting being asked to pay import taxes and handling charges.
Trump introduced a ten percent tariff on goods imported from China on Tuesday, but the bigger change is the removal of the ‘de minimis’ exemption, which previously allowed shipments valued below $800 to avoid all import taxes and duties. The change means that previously duty-free shipments now incur the new ten percent tariff, all prior import taxes, and potentially additional fees charged by the shipping company for the inconvenience. With 1.6 billion shipments into the US under de minimis in 2024, though not all from China, that’s a lot of parcels that now require additional inspections, handling, and paperwork.
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Your packages from China are about to get more expensive.
Donald Trump suspended a 100-year-old law this week that companies shipping online orders directly from China depended on. The de minimis exemption was used as a loophole by Temu, Shein, Amazon, and countless drop shipping operations. Check out my explainer below.
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China tariffs may already be hiking up import fees
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images
US consumers may already be seeing additional fees on shipments from China after President Donald Trump’s tariff on Chinese goods took effect on Tuesday.
Clint Reid, the founder and CEO of a company that offers software to help with cross-border commerce, posted screenshots on X showing additional charges added to a shipment from DHL:
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Qwertykeys halts keyboard shipments to US over tariff costs and confusion
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images
The keyboard company Qwertykeys has temporaily halted all shipments to the United States in response to President Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods going into effect. The company says it’s working on ways to mitigate shipping costs and that the tariffs have made it so that “all keyboards from China to the U.S. are now subject to 45% tariffs at full value.”
“We are closely watching the progress of the situation and really hope that there is something else we can do other than bumping the price up,” the company wrote in a comment on Reddit.
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USPS backtracks, will accept parcels from China after all
Photo by Nicholas Kamm / AFP via Getty Images
The US Postal Service has reversed yesterday’s surprise decision to stop accepting inbound parcels from China and Hong Kong. It will continue to accept international shipments from the two countries, though it warns of “disruption” to deliveries.
USPS previously announced that it was temporarily halting all packages shipped from China and Hong Kong. The decision came in the wake of President Donald Trump’s executive order revoking the de minimis exemption for shipments from China. It means that parcels valued below $800 are now eligible for US import duties and import taxes, including the new 10 percent tariff applied to all goods from China.
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Your packages are about to get slower and more expensive
Photo by Bruce Bennett / Getty Images
The United States Postal Service has warned of “disruption to package delivery” from China and Hong Kong, after briefly suspending all inbound package shipments from the two countries. The suspension was announced yesterday but has already been rescinded, and USPS says it is “accepting all” parcels shipped from China again.
The confusion comes after President Trump used an executive order imposing a 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods to also close a loophole called the de minimis exception, which allowed packages valued below $800 to enter the US duty free. It’s how e-commerce outfits including Shein and Temu have been able to offer goods to US buyers at such low prices. It is also widely exploited by the likes of Amazon and by merchants on Etsy and eBay.
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China opens Google antitrust probe in retaliation to tariffs
China has launched an antitrust investigation into Google as part of a salvo of responses to US tariff increases, including its own retaliatory tariffs and export controls. China’s State Administration for Market Regulation announced the Google probe on Tuesday over suspicions the US search giant has violated Chinese antimonopoly laws, according to a machine translation of the statement.
Google’s search and internet services have been blocked in China since 2010, but the antitrust investigation may interfere with its other dealings with Chinese companies. Details about the probe are slim, but according to the Financial Times it relates to the dominance of Android and potential harms caused to Chinese phone manufacturers including Oppo and Xiaomi. The probe was announced within minutes of President Trump’s 10 percent tariffs on Chinese goods going into effect, and joins a similar antitrust investigation into Nvidia launched in December 2024, with a probe into Intel also reportedly under consideration.
US tariffs: how Trump’s tax is hitting Big Tech and beyond
