Trump tariffs come into effect as economic turmoil continues
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US president Donald Trump’s tariffs have officially come into effect today impacting trade around the world.
A base 10% levy has been instigated on imports to the country as the administration seeks to address what it believes are trade imbalances, with some countries facing higher levies than others.
China was set to see new 34% tariffs following Trump’s announcement last week, but following retaliatory action, it now faces a 104% hit.
Other countries that like Vietnam and India also face new 46% and 26% tariffs, respectively.
Global stock markets have been rattled by the news this week. As we previously reported, Apple shares had fallen 20% between opening last Wednesday and Monday morning, striking off hundreds of billions of dollars from the iPhone giant’s market cap. Its stock price has fallen to a new low yesterday after a brief rally.
US tech and games companies Microsoft, Meta, Take-Two Interactive, and AppLovin saw shares up at close on Tuesday compared to the start of the week.
Stocks in Japanese companies like Square Enix, DeNA, Mixi and GungHo Online Entertainment have also risen since Monday morning, though share prices are still lower than before the tariffs announcement.
Manufacturing troubles
The new levies and emerging trade wars have become particularly problematic for hardware manufacturers. As well as addressing what it sees as trade imbalances, the Trump administration wants more manufacturing taking place on US soil.
Nintendo, which has assembly lines in China and Vietnam, has delayed pre-orders for the Switch 2 in the US and Canada. The console giant’s shares are up since Monday but remain down from last week.
Samsung, which develops a range of popular Android smartphones in the US, has seen shares dive along with Apple.
“The biggest impact in the games space will be on hardware, with the Switch 2 being the main immediate concern,” Ampere Analysis senior research manager for games Louise Wooldridge told PocketGamer.biz last week.
“Most gaming devices are at least assembled in China, if not built there. Ironically, Nintendo has progressively shifted assembly out of China to avoid tariffs and into Vietnam which has been hit by a 46% rate – likely an unexpected blow.
“Now that the price is fixed, it probably cannot be adjusted until 2026, so Nintendo – among others – will be hoping for a swift resolution. It is possible that the pricing of $450 included some foresight from Nintendo, though the extent of the tariffs may not have been accounted for.”
