President Trump on Wednesday announced a blanket 10% tariff across all U.S. trade partners, along with higher rates for countries with which the U.S. has “the largest trade deficits.”
This includes Vietnam, China and the European Union, which would see reciprocal tariff rates of 46%, 34% and 20%, respectively. Trump previously imposed a 20% tariff on imports from China, so the latest move would bring China’s total tariff rate to a staggering 54%. The 10% tariff on all countries will take effect April 5, whereas individual reciprocal tariffs will take effect April 9.
Not to state the obvious, but it’s looking grim for the telecom supply chain.
“[Tariffs] will certainly raise the price of equipment needed for telecommunications,” said Jason Miller, professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University. The U.S. is “very reliant” on the imported goods needed for those systems to function, he told Fierce via LinkedIn.
Dell’Oro analyst Jimmy Yu agreed that the price of networking equipment “will need to increase, especially equipment that has higher hardware than software content, such as optical transport and microwave transmission products.
Experts say new tariffs likely to impact telecom supply chains
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