Intel, HP, Dell and Microsoft Team Up Against Trump Tariffs

Microsoft's Surface Go. (Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

Intel, HP, Microsoft and Dell are joining forces to oppose President Donald Trump's proposed tariffs on $300 billion in Chinese goods, which includes laptop computers and tablets. Bloomberg first reported the news. The comment can be read in its entirety here.

The four companies have submitted joint comments in opposition to the escalation of tariffs on Chinese imports, suggesting that the practice would be bad for the industry and for people buying the goods. According to Bloomberg, the companies have said the tariffs are likely to hit during the back-to-school and holiday shopping periods, when lots of people shop for new computers.

Additionally, the companies wrote that "our most price-sensitive customers will be among the most significantly impacted." The best case scenario, the companies say, is that consumers will use old models, though they may not have the best security features. But it could also, they suggest, "force some consumers to go with laptop altogether."

These comments come during a series of public hearings on tariffs that started on June 17 and will run through June 25.

The Consumer Technology Association, an industry trade organization and lobbying group suggested in a study on Monday that prices of laptops and tablets could increase by as much as 19% the tariffs are put in place. 

In the comment, the four companies claimed to have spent $35 billion together on research and development in 2017, and the costs from tariffs could damage innovation and hurt jobs held by American workers by moving money elsewhere and would help manufacturers that aren't dependent on sales in the United States.

Andrew E. Freedman

Andrew E. Freedman is a senior editor at Tom's Hardware focusing on laptops, desktops and gaming. He also keeps up with the latest news. A lover of all things gaming and tech, his previous work has shown up in Tom's Guide, Laptop Mag, Kotaku, PCMag and Complex, among others. Follow him on Threads @FreedmanAE and Mastodon @FreedmanAE.mastodon.social.

  • hotaru251
    the costs from tariffs could damage innovation and hurt jobs held by American workers by moving money elsewhere

    casue heavene forbid your upper tier memebrs take a small paycut to cover the loss <_<

    I am not exactly for the tariffs...but for crap liek this its just corporate greed using the commonfolk as a scapegoat.
    Reply
  • fball922
    This is what the tariffs are designed to do... Put pressure on companies to move out of China, and put pressure on China to make a deal.

    This is a sure sign they are working as designed.
    Reply
  • ghostbit
    Communist sympathizers who just want to get richer at any cost.
    Reply
  • D1v1n3D
    If they don't want to pay the tariffs than we should have to pay less tariffs to them for our goods
    https://www.focus-economics.com/blog/the-largest-economies-in-the-worldhttps://www.businessinsider.com/silicon-valley-history-technology-industry-animated-timeline-video-2017-5
    Reply
  • vaughn2k
    They team up to get richer.
    While the American People suffers in Jobless society.
    Reply
  • herbman
    Trump is the only person who has the ability to get industry moving back to the USA , he's a Godsend everything is 100% better under Trump especially jobs . The anti American Islamic communist Obama brought America to it's knees and nearly bankrupted this country .

    Microsoft is a pro communist anti free speech company just like facebook , google and twitter.
    Reply
  • thegriff
    herbman said:
    Trump is the only person who has the ability to get industry moving back to the USA , he's a Godsend everything is 100% better under Trump especially jobs . The anti American Islamic communist Obama brought America to it's knees and nearly bankrupted this country .

    Microsoft is a pro communist anti free speech company just like facebook , google and twitter.
    Agree, it's the only way to pressure the Chinese to be fair (they put tariffs/restrictions on our good before this) and to prevent them from stealing IP which is one of the main issues. I know because they did this to the company my brother works for (pressuring them to build facilities their and have joint venture while stealing IP) and he still had to go their and fix their engineering of the products (he's VP of Engineering PD). So keep it up Trump.
    Reply
  • bigdragon
    I don't think these tariffs are nearly as unpopular as analysts and Wall Street insiders think. Tariffs are a tool that should have been used a long time ago to counter IP theft and wage disparity.

    HP and Dell have a lot of things they can do to control the costs of their machines. Partnering with Intel isn't one of them given the absurd pricing on Intel chips compared to the competition.
    Reply
  • digitalgriffin
    Imagine that,

    For profit companies opposed to rate increases offsetting cheap labor which might affect their bottom line. Shocker.

    I don't like Trump. But China has been playing unfairly for years. It has cost us our blue collar middle class by artificially cheap labor, predatory dumping (subsidies), and currency manipulation (intentional devaluation). China's actions also cost us jobs through intellectual property theft.

    China has two rules:
    Depend on no-one and to be self sufficient (which means they want to limit imports)
    To become #1 global economic force at any cost
    So basically I could care less if big tech companies who outsource to China are crying.
    Reply
  • TheSecondPower
    These companies fired their American manufacturers years ago and now they have to pay a small penalty for it. Serves them right.
    Reply