A viral claim that the United States has drastically reduced tariffs on Chinese goods including phones, computers, microchips, TVs, and solar panels from 145% to just 10% has circulated on X.
An X user, @sprinterobserve, shared the post on the X platform thus:
“Washington reduces tariffs on dozens of Chinese goods from 145% to just 10%, including: phones, computers, electronic chips, televisions, and even solar panels! This is just the beginning!”
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The post had garnered over 3 million views with 46,000 likes, more than 2,500 comments, and 9,000 reposts as of April 16, 2025.
CLAIM
US slashes tariffs on several Chinese goods, dropping rates from 145% to just 10% for items like phones, computers, microchips, TVs, and solar panels.
THE FINDINGS
Checks by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is FALSE as credible media reports show that the U.S. has increased tariffs on Chinese imports but places electronic products on a new tariff called “semi-conductor tariff” which were pegged at only 20% tax while other Chinese imports into America still stands at 145%.
Since returning to office for a second term as American president, Donald Trump has embraced an escalating tariff policy aimed at addressing what he calls “decades of unfair trade” practice. In April 2025, the White House announced sweeping tariff hikes, including an escalated 145% rate on most Chinese imports whereas China has retaliated with a 125% tariff on all American goods. These measures were introduced by the Trump-led U.S. presidency as part of a broader strategy over economic and national security concerns.
To verify the claim, our researcher subjected the keywords: “Chinese good tariffs on electronics” to a Google search. The results show that the U.S. president had addressed the controversial issue. In a report, Trump reacted strongly to media reports about tariff exemptions, stating that “no exceptions were announced”. He added that the technology products in question “are subject to the current 20% tariffs on fentanyl, and they are simply being moved to another tariff category”.
Also, in a social media post on his Truth Social, Trump accused the media of spreading “fake news” and stated that his team is investigating the entire supply chain of semiconductors and electronic products as part of future national security measures.
After dramatic back-and-forth tariff hikes between the US and China through last week, Washington appeared to bend last Friday.
A notice issued by US Customs and Border Protection on April 11, 2025 listed more than a dozen product categories that would be exempted from the wave of tariffs that Trump has imposed on China since April 2.
They included computers, laptops, disc drives and automatic data processing equipment, products that are largely not made in the US but in China. Smartphones, memory cards, semiconductor devices, solar cells, modems, routers and flat panel displays were also included on the exemptions list.
Last Friday’s notice specifically mentioned exemptions for these products from tariffs imposed on China on April 2, Aljazeera reported.
Further checks by our researcher show multiple media reports from Reuters and Associated Press, among others which revealed that the U.S. president has made a U-turn to review the hiked tariffs on goods imported from dozens of other countries which trades with the United States to what he called the “baseline tariff” to 10% only.
While some U.S. neighbours such as Canada and Mexico received temporary relief which reduced to 10% in tariff rate, China was not among them.
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Finally, this U.S. executive order titled: “Amendment to reciprocal tariffs and updated duties as applied to low values imports from the people’ republic of China” and dated April 8, 2025 also corroborated the hike in tariffs on Chinese goods, White House record shows.
THE VERDICT
The claim that the United States has reduced tariffs on Chinese goods from 145% to just 10% is FALSE; multiple media reports show that the U.S. has not reduced tariffs on Chinese imports from its last hiked rate of 145% but only moved electronic goods from China to a tariff called a “semi-conductor tariff” which currently stand at 20%.
