Home > News

Trump Tariffs Increasing Electronics Pricing

By Crystal Crowder
Stack of $100 bills.

As you’ve likely already heard, U.S. President Donald Trump has kept true to his word to impose tariffs on countries the U.S. relies on for a wide variety of goods. But how will the Trump tariffs affect electronics? I’d recommend buying now before prices start to rise if the tariffs aren’t dropped quickly.

China, Mexico, and Canada All Hit With Tariffs

Trump has admitted his sweeping tariffs on China, Mexico, and Canada could cause financial pain for American consumers but promises it’ll all be worth it to bring jobs back to America. He signed an executive order on February 1st that imposed 25 percent tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, along with a 10 percent tariff on Chinese imports. This is better than his proposed 60 percent tariff on China that was previously announced.

This affects food, automobiles, construction supplies, fuel, toys, footwear, and of course, personal electronics. Considering the high cost of consumer electronics already, I think we’re all dreading seeing the prices increase even more.

Cargo ship transporting goods.
Image source: Unsplash

Much of the technology we use every day in our computers, phones, smart home gadgets, and other electronics, is imported from China, so a 10 percent tariff may not seem like that big of a deal. However, what most consumers might not know is that an increasing number of electronics and components are manufactured and imported from Mexico. In fact, consumers spend billions each year on electronics and appliances imported from Mexico.

During Trump’s first term as President, tariffs increased the cost of appliances, vehicles, and more. That means those smart appliances you’ve been eyeing that were already higher in price could increase even more over the coming months as 10 to 25 percent tariffs drive up costs.

While Trump has pushed for tariffed countries to absorb the cost, the most likely scenario, and what happened previously, is American consumers will be the ones to absorb the cost.

Even worse, Mexico and Canada are already putting retaliatory tariffs into place in response, and even refusing to import some goods from the U.S.

Tariffs Begin Tuesday

Trump tariffs officially begin on Tuesday. Is it possible a deal could be worked out between the U.S., Mexico, China, and Canada before then? It’s unlikely, but it is a possibility, especially as consumers are understandably frustrated with having to deal with tariffs on top of inflation.

Tesla charging
Image source: Unsplash

You probably won’t see immediate price increases on personal electronics on behalf of the tariffs, but within a few months, expect to see increases on computers, smartphones, tablets, smart home gadgets, printers, wearables, and electronic toys. Infotainment systems in cars are also going to cost more for auto manufacturers, as they’re basically tablets built into your vehicle.

If you’re planning to buy an electric or hybrid vehicle, those costs are also rising. Between tariffs hitting auto manufacturers and electronics, it’s a double whammy for EVs, which could also hurt Elon Musk’s plan to launch robotaxis in Austin, TX later this year.

For now, the best option is to carefully compare prices before buying. Check out our buying guides to help find the best value for your needs, such as our guides to the best smartwatches and smart rings.

Image credit: Unsplash

Subscribe to our newsletter!

Our latest tutorials delivered straight to your inbox

Crystal Crowder Avatar
Crystal Crowder
Crystal Crowder has spent over 15 years working in the tech industry, first as an IT technician and then as a writer. She works to help teach others how to get the most from their devices, systems, and apps. She stays on top of the latest trends and is always finding solutions to common tech problems.

Read next

From below of blue starry sky over radio telescope and trees with leaves
The Big Ear telescope was scanning at 1420.4056 megahertz on the night of 15 August 1977, the exact frequency at which hydrogen atoms vibrate across the universe, because Giuseppe Cocconi and Philip Morrison had argued years earlier that any species trying to be found would broadcast on that channel — and then, for 72 seconds, something did.
In 2016, archaeologists dated two rings of snapped stalagmites in France’s Bruniquel Cave to 176,500 years ago, evidence that Neanderthals had walked 336 metres into darkness with fire and built architecture deep underground long before modern humans reached Europe
Otto von Bismarck was 74 when Germany adopted the world’s first national old-age social insurance program in 1889, setting the pension age at 70 after years of fighting socialists with bans, laws, and a promise few workers would live long enough to use
When cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov stepped out of his Soyuz capsule in March 1995 after 437 consecutive days aboard Mir, doctors recorded him at several centimetres above his pre-flight height, and his spine had become so unaccustomed to gravity that the recovery team carried him to a chair rather than risk the compression of letting him walk.
When Bell Labs engineer Karl Jansky pointed a rotating antenna at the sky in 1932 looking for sources of transatlantic radio static, he kept picking up a faint hiss that peaked every 23 hours and 56 minutes, and he eventually realized he had become the first human to hear the center of the Milky Way.
A contemplative scene with two scientists in a vintage laboratory setting.
When Harvard astronomer Cecilia Payne submitted her 1925 doctoral thesis arguing that the Sun was made almost entirely of hydrogen, the field’s senior figure Henry Norris Russell talked her into adding a line calling the result ‘almost certainly not real,’ and then published the same conclusion himself four years later to widespread acclaim.
When seismic waves from the Chicxulub impact reached what is now North Dakota roughly ten minutes after the asteroid struck, they appear to have triggered a ten-metre standing wave in an inland river that flung fish onto the bank and buried them under glass beads still falling from the sky.
When survivors near Lake Nyos woke on the morning of 22 August 1986, the cattle were dead in the fields, the birds had fallen out of the trees, and 1,746 of their neighbours were lying where they had stood the night before, with no fire, no flood, and no wound to explain it.