Tariffs, Consumer Electronics, and Right to Repair

This is an academic article I took the time to research for college

Miro
June 20, 2025
3 min read

Disclaimer

I wrote this to promote consumer choice, right-to-repair, and our right to ownership, and of course, for college.

The Article

According to the International Trade Administration (International Trade Administration, n.d.), the De Minimis threshold is the maximum value of imported goods and services beyond which taxes, duties and tariffs apply. In the United States of America, goods and services that cost over $800 are subject to tax, duty, and tariffs.

Given the current administration’s stance on the De Minimis Act (The White House, 2025), goods and services will no longer be subject to De Minimis Exemptions. What does this mean for the average American Consumer? Higher costs for imported goods and services. Given that the United States governs most of the economic policies for the West and the rest of the world at large-this results in increased costs to the consumer world-wide.

The bill itself is not ubiquitous and does not warrant the increase of costs to consumers globally, however, given that organizations are not exempt from this act, the cost of production of goods and services will increase. Leading to, inevitably, companies passing the tax onto consumers by increasing their maximum retail values.

In lieu of these tariffs, Beijing has also place retaliatory tariffs (The White House, 2025) on products exported to the United States. In relation to the CHIPS Act, these tariffs lead to higher production costs for consumer electronics, given that most raw materials required for the production of consumer electronics are imported from China due to their exclusive availability-some of these minerals (rare earths) are exclusive to certain regions, China being one of these regions(Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2025).

While the CHIPS Act does offer benefits to a homegrown consumer electronics industry, the disadvantages and high initial costs in addition to a lack of raw materials is deterring, as these policies will only lead to more geopolitical tension and ultimately, higher price tags on consumer electronics.

Some food for thought: how will this affect the repair industry and our right to repair? If you’re interested in our right to repair and ownership a good place would be to start would be here:

References:

De Minimis Value - Express Shipment Exemptions.(n.d.). Retrieved June 20, 2025, from https://www.trade.gov/de-minimis-value

Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Closes De Minimis Exemptions to Combat China’s Role in America’s Synthetic Opioid Crisis. (April 2, 2025). Retrieved June 20, 2025, from https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/04/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-closes-de-minimis-exemptions-to-combat-chinas-role-in-americas-synthetic-opioid-crisis/

Amendment to reciprocal tariffs and updated duties as applied to low-value imports from the People’s Republic of China. (April 8, 2025). Retrieved June 20, 2025, from https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/amendment-to-recipricol-tariffs-and-updated-duties-as-applied-to-low-value-imports-from-the-peoples-republic-of-china/

The Consequences of China’s New Rare Earths Export Restrictions. (April 14, 2025). Retrieved June 20, 2025, from https://www.csis.org/analysis/consequences-chinas-new-rare-earths-export-restrictions