Apple Watch Now Excluded From U.S. Tariffs on Chinese Goods - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Apple Watch Now Excluded From U.S. Tariffs on Chinese Goods

by

Apple in November asked the U.S. government to exclude the Apple Watch, AirPods, HomePod, and iPhone components from tariffs on goods imported from China, and the Apple Watch has been exempted.

applewatch5lineup
According to Bloomberg, the U.S. Trade Representative on Friday approved a tariff waiver for Apple's wrist worn device.

A 15 percent tariff on a long list of products imported from China went into effect on September 1, though it was halved on February 15 after an initial trade deal was established.

Apple said that the Apple Watch should be exempted because it is "it is not strategically important or related to 'Made in China 2025' or other Chinese industrial programs." Apple also claimed that it was not able to find a source outside of China to meet demand for Apple Watch production in 2020.

Apple has also filed for waivers for AirPods, ‌HomePod‌, iPhone components, and other products impacted by the tariffs.

Apple CEO Tim Cook in October said that he was hopeful the U.S. and China would resolve their trade issues. "I don't know every chapter of the book, but I think that will eventually happen," Cook said. "I certainly hope it happens during the quarter, but we'll see about that."

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Popular Stories

iPhone 18 Pro Deep Red Feature

iPhone 18 Pro Launching in Two Months With These 12 New Features

Friday July 24, 2026 7:26 pm PDT by
It is now late July, and that means the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are less than two months away. The devices are expected to look similar to the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, but there will still be many year-over-year changes, with rumored features including a smaller Dynamic Island, 5G via satellite, and more. Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro...
Read Full Article
macbook ultra

'MacBook Ultra' Coming Soon With These 12 New Features

Friday July 24, 2026 6:00 pm PDT by
Apple's first high-end MacBook redesign in five years is expected to arrive in the near future, bringing a run of firsts to the Mac. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman expects the laptop to arrive between late 2026 and early 2027, with the later window now looking more likely owing to the global memory chip shortage. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo expects mass production to begin by late 2026. Apple last...
Read Full Article • 219 comments
5 Reasons to Buy the iPhone 17 Now Feature

5 Reasons to Buy the iPhone 17 Now Instead of Waiting for iPhone 18

Thursday July 23, 2026 8:26 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone 18 Pro models and its first foldable are less than two months from being unveiled. That may sound like a reason to sit tight if you're looking to upgrade from an iPhone 16 or older series, but between looming price hikes and Apple's new split-launch calendar, there's a decent case for grabbing an iPhone 17 series model right now. Here are five reasons in favor of putting your order ...
Read Full Article • 74 comments

Top Rated Comments

JPack Avatar
JPack
83 months ago
Taking care of the important stuff.

Meanwhile, the 500 million N95 respirators on order are expected to take 18 months. Manufacturers in China aren’t able to fulfill the request due to face saving procurement requirements.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-19/trump-s-500-million-respirators-could-take-18-months-to-deliver
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
S
satchmo
83 months ago
The donation of 2 million masks probably didn't hurt Apple's case.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
C
citysnaps
83 months ago

Hopefully apple passes along these savings to the customers....lol
Nope. Apple has been absorbing the tariff hit on behalf of its customers. No need to pass anything on.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
C
citysnaps
83 months ago

They haven't absorbed anything. originally when the tariff was in place, they just charged customers extra. Eliminating this tariff just increases their margins.
That's not true. Prices were not increased. You may not know Apple's GPMs have decreased over the last couple of years; imposed tariffs being a part of that.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
developer13245 Avatar
developer13245
83 months ago
Fact: A 25% import tariff on cell phones and laptops would have killed Apple. Apple’s existence relies on psycho price points and margins - F that up and Apple is dead.. Period! Tim Cook made a special trip to DC to whisper that fact into Trump’s ear. This is why we have a “phase one” trade deal, it saved Apple.

Apple’s existence completely depends on China in its current form, including all of the ‘unsightly’ malfeasance perpetrated by the CCP (slave labor, etc…) This is the dirty little secret that no one wants to accept. So while other business have been able to decouple from China, this will not be the case for Apple (and a few other very large/influential companies). This has created a dilemma for the US government. Will the US government allow the CCP to continue wrecking the USA just so Apple can prop up the US stock market? Or will the US government do its job to protect the country? The choice should be obvious, but there is too much money to be made by those in power, especially those like Tim Cook who admire how the CCP organizes Chinese society (and would welcome that in the USA).
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
LizKat Avatar
LizKat
83 months ago
I keep looking at that watch with the pink strap and thinking it would serve as an amulet against the virus.

So... I must stop looking at it, and get back to keeping my social distance from even FedEx couriers.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments