The Apple Watch could end up seeing new tariffs as a result of the U.S.-China trade war, according to a new report by Reuters. According to the report, recent government rulings on tariffs have put at least the original Apple Watch in an obscure subcategory of data transmission devices — alongside several Fitbit activity trackers and Sonos speakers — that would have them falling under one of the 6,000 codes that have been included in President Donald Trump’s most recent round of proposed tariffs. While the $200 billion list of tariffs is still in a public comment period, it is scheduled to potentially go into effect this fall, which would result in a ten percent tariff those devices, including the original Apple Watch, Fitbit’s Charge, Charge HR, and Surge models, and Sonos’s Play:3, Play:5 and SUB speakers.
Notably, only the original “Series 0” Apple Watch is included in this particular tariff category, so the new policies may have no measurable impact, but it’s not inconceivable that existing models could be reshuffled into the same category, since there seems to be no reason — other than a bureaucratic error — as to why only one model of Apple Watch should fit into this tariff code and not others.
Despite this, however, it does seem that the iPhone will be spared any tariffs. The New York Times reported last month that Apple CEO Tim Cook was told by President Trump in a meeting in May that the U.S.
government would not levy tariffs on iPhones assembled in China, although noting was said about other Apple devices, almost all of which are put together by Chinese manufacturers. Trade experts, however, note that it’s also possible that these products may no longer fall under these tariff codes; the specific codes are only published knowledge because of a request by companies to rule on their proper classification, however this also makes it unclear what other Apple products may be included in these codes and simply not have been publicly disclosed.
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