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Smartphones in Limbo Under New Tariff Plans

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Apr 14, 2025, 8:12 AM by Rich Brome @rbrome.bsky.social

On Friday, US Customs and Border Patrol issued a notice saying that smartphones, computers and some other electronic devices would be exempt from most new tariffs. By the end of the weekend, the administration started to walk back the exemption, when Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick characterized the exemption as only a "temporary reprieve". He indicated that smartphones would be included in new "semiconductor tariffs" coming in "a month or two", adding "These are things that are national security that we need to be made in America."

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