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Trump's latest China tariff exceptions do not include video game consoles

The president's latest walking back of tariffs on electronics made in China does not include video game consoles.

Asif Khan

April 12, 2025 1:45 PM

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President Trump continued to walk back implementation of the tariffs announced on Liberation Day just last week with the United States technology sector being the latest beneficiary. In updated guidance issued by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency, a reciprocal tariff exclusion has been announced for specific electronic products made in china including smartphones, solar cells, flash drives, memory cards, semiconductors, and flat panel televisions. Video game consoles are noticeably missing from this latest trade war concession from the Trump administration.

The update guidance states that these tariff exceptions will apply retroactively "for merchandise entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after 12:01AM Eastern Daylight Time on April 5, 2025." 

It's to do with the HTS codes that are exempted.

For example, smartphones fall under 8517.13

Consoles fall under 9504.50.

The first one is exempted, the second one isn't. Only way around it is to commit fraud.https://t.co/RTMIeSNYZM

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) April 12, 2025

It remains to be seen if video game consoles will be included in a future announcement from the Trump administration, but multiple analysts have confirmed that Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) code 9504.50 is not included in the tariff exceptions announced today. Earlier this week, the stock market experienced a euphoric rally on news that Trump would pause the implementation of the majority of global tariffs imposed on April 2, but the trade war with China continued to escalate well into the weekend. Just one week ago, protests of the Liberation Day tariffs were held across the world.

Only time will tell if all of the tariffs announced in the past few weeks will be completely walked back or if there are particular hills that the president aims to die atop. For the moment, every single video game console maker will be impacted as Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo all manufacture all or part of their consoles in China. It is important to note that Nintendo has attempted to mitigate some of the impact of the ongoing tariffs in the United States by moving some of the Switch 2 console production to Vietnam.

Asif Khan

CEO/EIC/EIEIO

Asif Khan is the CEO, EIC, and majority shareholder of Shacknews. He began his career in video game journalism as a freelancer in 2001 for Tendobox.com. Asif is a CPA and was formerly an investment adviser representative. After much success in his own personal investments, he retired from his day job in financial services and is currently focused on new private investments. His favorite PC game of all time is Duke Nukem 3D, and he is an unapologetic fan of most things Nintendo. Asif first frequented the Shack when it was sCary's Shugashack to find all things Quake. When he is not immersed in investments or gaming he is a purveyor of fine electronic music. Asif also has an irrational love of Cleveland sports.