Apple's request for Apple Watches to be excluded from a 7.5% US tariff on Chinese imports has been approved
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple has been working the tariff-exclusion channel since the trade war began: it sent the administration a detailed letter listing products exposed to China tariffs in 2018 and separately sought relief for Mac Pro components facing 25% duties. The Apple Watch entered the crosshairs when the US began imposing 15% tariffs on Chinese-made tech including the Watch in September 2019.
This approval converts that lobbying into a concrete win: Watches are carved out of the 7.5% tariff on Chinese imports, removing a duty that would otherwise sit directly on Apple's highest-volume wearable line.
First-order effects
- Apple Watch units imported from China now enter the US without the 7.5% duty, protecting Watch margins and sparing Apple a price-increase decision on its flagship wearable.
Second-order effects
- Apple's success gives every other consumer-electronics maker a template — expect a wave of copycat exclusion filings for phones, laptops, and components still carrying China tariffs.
Third-order effects
- If exclusions keep getting granted product-by-product, effective tariff exposure for big importers becomes a function of regulatory paperwork rather than the headline rate — a structural advantage for companies with Washington presence over smaller importers.
The trend: US-China tech tariffs are increasingly shaped by company-specific exclusion requests rather than uniform rates, rewarding firms that can navigate the exemption process.