• February 4, 2025
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Starting today, the Trump administration tacked on another 10% for all imports coming from China. That is in addition to the 25% tariff that started under his first term.

However, it seems that 2 and 4-layer rigid PCBs are still exempt from any tariffs till the end of May of this year—that is good news for now.

I’ve passionately argued against tariffs because so many domestic manufacturers use within their electronic products items that are manufactured in Asia—primarily China. These are products that cannot be produced by domestic manufacturers in a timely manner because of lack of capacity.

Contrary to popular opinion, tariffs are not helpful to the American PCB buyer. Tariffs have and will artificially raise PCB prices (AKA inflation) not only for domestic manufacturers but also in other countries.

Only time will tell how this will play out, especially since we’re not sure yet how high they will go, or how long they will be kept in place.

But as I mentioned last week, until the U.S. manufacturing capacity increases, buyers will pay whatever, from wherever, to get their boards when they need them.

What do you think? Let me know!

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