Fierce Communications reports…

President Donald Trump is less than a month into his second term but has wasted no time imposing a 10% tariff on goods from China, sparking concern from the telecom industry. Equipment vendors are understandably keeping a close eye on how events unfold, because while wireline providers may be left unscathed the same can’t be said for the supply chain.

Will Townsend, VP and principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, told Fierce the China tariff is a “non-impact” for rural U.S. broadband deployments, given providers have been “well on the way” of reducing equipment from vendors like Huawei and ZTE. IDC analyst Jitesh Bhayani similarly said he doesn’t anticipate “an immediate impact from a service providers perspective.”

That’s mainly due to the government’s Rip and Replace program, which is poised to get $3 billion in additional funding from Congress. And in the past few years, fiber vendors have also been onshoring their manufacturing to the U.S. due to Build America, Buy America (BABA) Act requirements associated with the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program.