AMD and Nvidia are about to launch new GPUs – Radeon 9000 series and RTX 5000 series respectively – but with new US import tariffs proposed by the president-elect, it’s feared that prices will need to be increased by as much as 40%. And it’s not just GPUs that will be affected. Laptops, smartphones, monitors, and game consoles are just a few of the tech devices that will be affected by these proposed US import taxes.
The president elect has proposed tariffs of between 60% and 100% on Chinese goods, and a tax of between 10% and 20% on every product imported from all U.S. trading partners.
These proposed new tariffs are supposed to help US workers by bringing manufacturing back to the US, but whoever proposed the idea clearly hasn’t considered the negative impact this move will have. Inflation will rise and the logistics of setting up manufacturing from China to the US would be an enormous undertaking, not to mention the colossal costs involved.
When you buy a new laptop, cell phone, monitor, GPU, motherboard, smart TV, and most other tech-related gizmos, it will invariably have been made in China, Taiwan, or somewhere else in the East. There has even been talk of a 200% tariff on car imports from China and a particularly aggressive stance on both Canada and Mexico has been proposed.
I hasten to add that this is not a political article and should not be taken as such. Trade wars aren’t beneficial to anyone and in this respect, the main losers will be US consumers. In my humble opinion, these proposals smack of isolationism and protectionism as opposed to balanced trade agreements. I know only too well how measures such as this work out because for decades Argentina, through populist regimes, has become isolated by such policies with extraordinarily high tariffs on imports, the costs of which are only ever paid by the consumer. Reversing such inane policies can often take years or even decades and the only ones who profit are the fat cats in their ivory towers.
So if you live in the US, it may be prudent to buy your gizmos before these new tariffs come into effect next year. I know I would.
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