Why it matters: PC parts, including graphics cards, motherboards, and even PC cases, look set to increase in price by as much as 25% as the Biden administration prepares to resume all the Trump-era tariffs placed on Chinese goods following a five-month delay.
It was back in 2018 when then-President Trump told the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) to create tariffs of up to 25% on Chinese-manufactured goods. The 437 affected products included components used in the manufacture of PCBs and computer hardware, including graphics cards.
Trump himself suspended the tariffs from September 2019 until January 2021, after which point graphics card prices increased. The Biden administration created an exclusion list of 350 products in 2022 that included graphics cards and motherboards. This was supposed to last until December 2022, but the US Trade Representative (USTR) extended the pause for nine months, which later became twelve months.
US gamers breathed a sigh of relief in January when the USTR delayed re-imposing the full tariffs on Chinese goods for another five months as it sought industry feedback and considered modifications.
Those five months are now up. As reported by PCMag, the USTR has recommended to the White House that the "tariffs on covered products be maintained." This includes tariff codes 8473.30.1180 and 8473.30.5100, which cover graphics cards, motherboards, and desktop PC cases.
The White House has yet to officially state it is reinstating all the tariffs, and there's no indication of when this might happen. But with the Biden administration recently announcing an upcoming tariff increase on some Chinese-made goods, including electric vehicles and semiconductors, expect the re-introduction to come sooner rather than later.
In December 2021, Nvidia, Zotac, and Dell urged the Biden administration to make their products exempt from the tariffs as they were not manufactured in the US and in only limited amounts in Taiwan. Nvidia noted that efforts to produce the goods in other locations had been unsuccessful. The pleas came at a time when the pandemic was having a devastating effect on the GPU industry.
All graphics card manufacturers rely on China for at least some of their products' components, while many peripherals are manufactured entirely in the Asian nation. If you're planning on making a PC-related purchase, it might be better to do it now rather than wait a few more months.