Bad news for Apple: The tech giant’s AirPods, Apple Watch and HomePod are not included in a temporary reprieve on tariffs by the Trump administration. Instead, these products will get hit with a 10 percent tax on Sept 1.
One bright spot was that major items such as laptops and cellphones, including Apple’s MacBooks and iPhones, will not face tariffs until Dec. 15.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The items that will be affected by the Sept. 1 tariffs include consumer electronics such as smartwatches, fitness trackers, smart speakers and Bluetooth headphones from companies including Fitbit, Amazon and Google.
That could have a big impact on Apple, which faced disappointing sales for its latest iPhone. In fact, the iPhone contributed less than half of Apple’s revenue during its latest reported fiscal quarter.
But accessories such as AirPods helped the company boast a 50 percent jump in sales of so-called wearables, helping Apple to see growth in China despite the fact that the iPhone’s market share in the country declined to 5.8 percent from 6.4 percent during the last quarter.
“We actually grew in mainland China,” Apple CEO Tim Cook told Reuters in an interview on July 30. “Non-iPhone revenue grew 17 percent. We grew in every category outside of iPhone.”
Stocks in general spiked after it was reported that tariffs on other products would be delayed from Sept. 1 to Dec. 15. In discussing the delay, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) said that “products in this group include, for example, cell phones, laptop computers, video game consoles, certain toys, computer monitors, and certain items of footwear and clothing.”
As a result, Apple’s shares rose, shares about 4 percent in early afternoon trading, while chipmakers saw an increase in the mid-single-digit percentages, and toymakers such as Mattel were up more than 4 percent.
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