US Consumers Shouldn’t Worry About GPU Prices For Another Year As Trump-Era Tariffs Delayed

Rejoice, US consumers! The Biden administration reportedly won't include Trump-era tariffs on hardware imports such as GPUs from China, and the process has been delayed now.

Well, news surrounding the imposition of Trump-era tariffs started to gain traction during the first days of 2024 since the government encountered deadlines to decide on its policy toward Chinese hardware imports. For a quick rundown on the tariffs, it was said that hardware imports directly from China would face a 25% tariff, including GPUs, AI-based accelerators, and multiple other components, since the Trump administration at that time wanted to reduce Chinese influence over the nation. With Biden's government, the tariffs were halted, and the situation looks to continue like this.

Last week, we mentioned how the US Trade Representative (USTR) issued a notice stating they were ready to impose the new taxation policy. However, a crucial detail in the USTR notice was missed, which stated that the tariffs would be effective by 31 May 2025, almost a year from now. The USTR themselves clarified the issue, and interestingly, ASRock approached PCMag on the issue as well, explaining the government's stance.

While the two tariff codes you reference (in the previous development) are currently subject to the 301 duties, there are certain products under those codes that benefit from exclusions. It is not all products under the entire 10-digit codes

- USTR via PCMag

Since we are a company selling PC motherboards and graphics cards, we’ve been watching the new policy closely. What we knew from the released document and also the forwarder we worked with is that the graphics cards are excluded from the extra tariffs till 2025/5/31.

- ASRock via PCMag

Well, the above statement does show that while certain products will oversee the tariff imposition, the government states that "printed circuit assemblies for rendering images onto computer screens ('graphics processing modules')" will receive an exemption, hinting towards the fact that PC components such as GPUs and motherboards from China won't be subjective to the new tariff policy, which is a massive sigh of relief for domestic consumers and sellers as well. Companies like ZOTAC and MSI were expected to see massive rises in costs with the new 25% tariff if it were to be imposed. However, they have dodged the bullet for now.

With US-China tensions at an all-time high and both nations involved in a technological race, it is also sensible to see such developments surface. The one who pays the ultimate sacrifice is the average consumer, whose tech ambitions get stuck in political wildfires.