US considers 25% tariff on game consoles

[Playstation Tablet 1,723]

Thanks Obama.

 

As reported by Game Daily, the Office of the United States Trade Representative has proposed a tariff of up to 25% on a wide array of products imported from China.

The US has been raising tariffs on Chinese goods in waves since the middle of last year. The newly proposed product list is the largest yet, representing an approximate annual trade value of $300 billion. (Tariffs on a $200 billion group of goods were raised earlier this month.) The USTR says it covers "essentially all" products not already covered by previous tariffs, apart from a select few categories like pharmaceuticals, medical goods, and rare earth minerals.

The extensive list of affected product categories includes video game consoles, game controllers, and coin-op arcade games.

The USTR has invited comments from the public in regards to the proposed tariffs and set a deadline of June 17 for those to be considered before action is taken.

[Goukosan 2,249]

Make consoles 600 again... thanks Trump

[Playstation Tablet 1,723]

They just had to do it like right before next-gen starts. Like the worst time.

[Playstation Tablet 1,723]

So if a console is $500, they can't seriously be jacking the price up to $625 right?

[jehurey 3,227]

24 minutes ago, Team 2019 said:

So if a console is $500, they can't seriously be jacking the price up to $625 right?

Whenever the product is being imported into the US, they have their own value for it. Its going to be less than $500 because that's the retail price to consumers.

 

But it probably won't be much lower, like maybe 10-15% less.  And from that price, the tariffs are assessed and the cost of customs duties will be raised for importing the product.

 

So, console manufacturers and retailers are going to have to decide on what they are going to do with the final retail price if this is still happening well into 2020.

 

They may eat some of that, or maybe all of that, because the important thing to Sony is that the console must be in people's homes so that they buy games, and they make money that way.

 

And the retailer may want to help eat some of that tariff cost because they want people coming into their store and a new console is a hot item that drives traffic.

[DynamiteCop 2,085]

They'll just shift manufacturing to Malaysia or something. 

[Goukosan 2,249]

2 hours ago, DynamiteCop! said:

They'll just shift manufacturing to Malaysia or something. 

just like that right? So easy right? 

[DynamiteCop 2,085]

7 minutes ago, Goukosan said:

just like that right? So easy right? 

Absolutely. 

[Cooke 2,026]

I remember when stuff used to be made in Taiwan. What happened? 

[DynamiteCop 2,085]

7 minutes ago, Cookester15 said:

I remember when stuff used to be made in Taiwan. What happened? 

Isn't Taiwan officially China but operating under its own jurisdiction and economy? 

[lynux3 2,049]

8 minutes ago, DynamiteCop! said:

Isn't Taiwan officially China but operating under its own jurisdiction and economy? 

Taiwan is independent of China. 

[Cooke 2,026]

44 minutes ago, DynamiteCop! said:

Isn't Taiwan officially China but operating under its own jurisdiction and economy? 

Are you thinking of Hong Kong? 

[DynamiteCop 2,085]

36 minutes ago, Cookester15 said:

Are you thinking of Hong Kong? 

Probably. 

[DynamiteCop 2,085]

The reality is if any of this came to pass these companies would just have them manufactured elsewhere, they're not tidally locked and given manufacturing hasn't even remotely begun for next-gen they may very well do just that.

 

It's not like they haven't before. 

 

 

[Goukosan 2,249]

2 hours ago, DynamiteCop! said:

Absolutely. 

Are you building the plants that have the capacity to output the supplies needed?