PC manufacturers are rushing to ship as much stock as possible to beat the tariff truce between China and the U.S., which is set to end on July 9. According to Nikkei Asia, MSI chairman Joseph Hsu told reporters after its annual general meeting that the company’s inventory sells out as soon as it ships, so it’s racing against time and shipping whatever it can to its customers. Gigabyte also held its annual general meeting on the same day, and its chairman, Dandy Yeh, is facing the same situation — it's fulfilling rush orders aimed at beating tariff uncertainties.
President Donald Trump first announced tariffs for nearly every American trading partner in the first week of April, which were set to go fully live on April 9. However, he paused them all for nearly all countries for 90 days, except for China, which was slapped with a final 145% tariff after a series of escalations. This move had the trade representatives of numerous countries at the negotiating table with the U.S., and the hope is that each respective nation would have worked out a deal with Washington, D.C. to avoid getting their products taxed at high levels.
Nevertheless, there is no guarantee that a trade agreement would be in place by the deadline, so many companies, including MSI and Gigabyte, are rushing to have stock in place. President Trump has announced several import taxes since the start of his term — from the ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs that essentially put a tax on everything being imported into the country, to chip tariffs and everything in between. However, he’s also been putting these announced measures on pause right before they’re set to go live — that’s why many companies, especially those in the tech sector, are being battered by uncertainty.
The U.S. Trade Court even got involved, declaring several of Trump’s tariffs to be unlawful. However, the White House has appealed the ruling, and active tariffs will remain in place while the legal battle plays out. Elsewhere, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang called the president’s move ‘utterly visionary’.
As the July 9 deadline inches closer, companies are likely getting worried that the White House and other nations have made no announcements yet regarding any trade deals. So, they’re trying to hedge their bets by importing as much product as they can. A few companies did this before the first tariff deadline in April, with Apple shipping five extra planeloads to bolster its inventory the night before the tariffs were supposed to go live. This wasn't an option for MSI and Gigabyte, though, especially as Nvidia just launched the RTX 50-series GPUs and it was still ramping up manufacturing.
Hopefully, we see an announcement between the U.S. and the countries that manufacture most of its imported goods (like electronics) before the deadline passes, or that Trump extends the deadlines again if no agreement has been signed yet. The White House can also enact the tariffs that were previously announced, but that is a situation that many don’t want to see. Companies fear that these tariffs could lead to a decline in international trade, similar to what happened during the 1930s when the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 worsened the Great Depression. This could, in turn, affect other economies, resulting in a global downturn.
Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
