Tariffs live: Trump makes major China tariffs concession as US-UK trade deal ‘only days away’

After Trump’s tariff bonanza sent global markets into shock, it is curious that America simply shrugs at the idea that its president is benefiting from the chaos. But we’re all living in Trump land now, writes Chris Blackhurst:

Donald Trump’s popularity has plunged since he launched Liberation Day tariffs causing trillions to be wiped off the global stock market.

An Economist/YouGov poll found that 51 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump, while 43 percent approve.

President Donald Trump had told reporters Friday on Air Force One that there could be possible exclusions to his sweeping tariffs.

“There could be a couple of exceptions for obvious reasons, but I would say 10% is a floor,” Trump said.

Smartphones, computer monitors and various electronic parts are among the exempted products. The exemption applies to products entering the United States or removed from warehouses as early as April 5, according to a notice posted by Custom and Border Agency late on Friday.

Roughly 90% of Apple’s iPhone production and assembly is based in China, according to Wedbush Securities’ estimates.

When Samsung Electronics chairman Jay Y. Lee met Vietnam’s prime minister in July, he had a simple message to convey. “Vietnam’s success is Samsung’s success, and Vietnam’s development is Samsung’s development,” Lee told Pham Minh Chinh, pledging long-term investment to make the country its biggest manufacturing base for display products.

About 60% of the 220 million phones Samsung sells each year globally are made in Vietnam, and many are destined for the U.S., where Samsung is the No. 2 smartphone vendor, according to research firm Counterpoint.

Now, that reliance on Vietnam threatens to backfire as Hanoi is racing to negotiate with the Trump administration to lower a punishing potential 46% tariff that has exposed the vulnerability of the Southeast Asian country’s export model.

“Tariffs are an important tool in our economic toolbox,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.

“Trump is creating chaos, and that chaos undercuts our economy and our families, both in the short term and the long term. … He’s just created a worldwide hurricane, and that’s not good for anyone.”

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said Democrats have a consensus around “a unified concept, which is targeted tariffs can work, across the board tariffs are bad.”

“The right targeting is in the eye of the beholder, but nobody on our side thinks zero tariffs ever,” Kaine said.

“He’s certainly living up to the caricature of being a mad king,” Kurt Bardella, a Democratic strategist told The Guardian.

“When you’re addressing a ballroom in a tuxedo, telling people to take the painful medicine, or on your umpteenth golf vacation while economic chaos is rippling throughout this country and others, at best you’re completely out of touch.”

“This is the dream scenario for tech investors,” Dan Ives, global head of technology research at Wedbush Securities, told CNBC.

The Trump administration has granted tariff exclusions for smartphones, computers and other electronics imports supplied largely by China, sparing them from much of President Donald Trump’s steep 125% duties.

White House officials did not immediately reply to a request for comment on why the latest tariff exemptions had been made.

In a notice to shippers, the US Customs and Border Protection agency published a list of tariff codes that will be excluded from the duties. The exclusions are retroactive to 12:01 a.m. on April 5.

They listed 20 product categories, including the very broad 8471 code for all computers, laptops, disc drives and automatic data processing. It also included semiconductor devices, equipment, memory chips and flat panel displays.

The notice did not provide an explanation for the Trump administration’s move, but the late-night exclusion provides welcome relief to major US technology firms, including Apple Dell Technologies and countless other importers.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said items like smartphones, laptops, hard drives, flat-panel monitors and some chips would qualify for the latest exemption from tariffs.

Machines used to make semiconductors are excluded too. That means they won’t be subject to the current 145% tariffs levied on China or the 10% baseline tariffs elsewhere.

Trump previously said he would consider exempting some companies from tariffs.

The move takes off “a huge black cloud overhang for now over the tech sector and the pressure facing U.S. Big Tech,” said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives in a research note.

Neither Apple nor Samsung responded to a request for comment early Saturday. Nvidia declined to comment