Will buyers of the Librem 5 have to pay extra as a consequence of the tariffs Trump is imposing on Chinese goods?

Is there any chance we will get them before the tariffs take effect? I think I read somewhere that we have until June. I would honestly rather have a phone that doesn’t have all the kinks ironed out instead of having to pay an extra $150.

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I think the tariffs taking effect now are on the same $200 billion of goods, going from 10% to 25%. The Trump administration is proposing putting tariffs on another $300 billion worth of goods, which if adopted will include cell phones imported from China.

I read somewhere that the new tariffs need to be submitted for a commenting period of 60 days. So it won’t be June 1.

That said, if the tariffs go through it will make cellphones built in China more expensive. But there is more time before that happens. And hopefully a trade deal will be reached.

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Purism imports them. Legally they can’t raise the price in existing orders. But it would really suck for them.

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For the customers that needs to be shipped to the US they are probably screwed, but for the customers who live in other parts of the world are they able to get the manufacturer or the distributor to test and flash the devices so every phone doesn’t have to go through the Purism in the US and therefore avoid the tax?

As the tariffs are meant to help the US (and will in the long run), I would gladly pay more for my device! Nothing worth having is cheap or free, same goes for getting out of a trade situation that is bad for the US.

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Trump creates noise, confusion, a trade war. then he will use his deal making ability to solve the problem. Most likely he will speak personally with the Chinese leader at the next international meeting. Trump will make a deal to end a large part of the Tariffs. Some Tariffs are likely to stay forever. Mostly, Trump creates a problem, so he can “Make a Deal” and solve the problem.

The rule for now is, as I was told. If the object was on a transport coming to the US when the Tariff went up, then it was not subject to higher Tariffs. After that everything on the list will be subject to the higher Tariffs. The thought being that if Puri allows their pile of Librem 5’s to build up in China, then the Tariff policy might end, no problem. Likely before the fall issue date of the first group of Librem 5’s. The worst thing is for Puri to ship those as they are manufactured now, pay the Tariff now, then the Tariff goes away in like June, less than thirty days.

Parts will still cost the same. The ban is not applicable to a custom built ODM hardware.
If they will decide to ride on this story to raise prices is a different question.

This is derailing a bit, but I must respond. This is coming from someone who is pro-US, but not necessarily pro-Trump for the sake of being for the man. I support him because he is our duly-elected President, and support much, but not all, of his policy.

Trump did not create the problem, he is attempting to resolve one that has been around for a long while, that being NAFTA. Not getting into the origins of that for the sake of brevity. NAFTA effectively transferred the bulk of US wealth and manufacturing overseas, left US exports open to considerable taxation, and made tax on imports from other countries minimal to non-existent. The “one-sided deal” Trump has been on about.

To put it in terms of a “trade war”, this would be like US leadership giving the OK to other nations to assault our economy without retaliation, which is what NAFTA effectively was (honestly, the USMCA is not much better, IMHO). This wreaked havoc on the US economy in so many ways, again, I will not get into the fullness of it for the sake of brevity. The point is that Trump did not start the “trade war”, he is simply standing up for the country he was elected to lead. He is putting the US first, as the President of the United States should.

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I’d like to avoid having a discussion about the trade war itself, if at all possible. :smiley:

It remains to be seen what effect any tariffs will have, and obviously any discussion about those is speculative at this point. If there’s a real need to have this discussion then could we please focus on the effects rather than the causes. That way there’s less room for forum members to get upset about each other’s political standpoints.

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Fair enough! Thanks for helping keep us on-track :slight_smile:

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