Everyone chill, GPUs and motherboards aren't about to be walloped with a massive tariff after all

Last week we reported on the supposed application of a 25% import tariff into the US on Chinese-made GPUs, motherboards, cases and more which was due to come into force this June and cause a spike in prices. Turns out, that's not happening after all.

To our best understanding, it all goes something like this. PC Mag picked up on a Federal Trade document announcing that the Biden administration would further extend certain Trump-era tariffs for another year and took that to mean graphics cards, motherboards and other PC-relevant assemblies made in China were about to be walloped with a 25% tariff upon landing in the US.

This could have been big news even outside of the US. Pricing in other territories tends to mirror that of the US, regardless of local tariff regimes. More expensive PC parts in the US could very well have been reflected elsewhere, even without equivalent tariffs.

However, what the notice actually does is confirm that the current status quo will be maintained for another year. The tariffs in the notice are already in place. Critically, those tariffs include certain exemptions which include, yup, GPUs, motherboards and other classes of devices.

«The US Trade Representative has found that extending these exclusions will support efforts to shift sourcing out of China, or provide additional time where, despite efforts to source products from alternative sources, availability of the product outside of China remains limited,” the notice says.

The bottom line then, and what still isn't entirely clear from PC Mag's updated story, is that this Federal Trade notice simply kicks the current can down the road for a year. The tariffs in question were already in place, but so were the exemptions for our precious PC parts. The notice announces, in effect, that nothing is changing for a year.

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