Earlier this week we reported on the rather disappointing news that ASUS had formally confirmed that MSRP’s of pretty much all of its current motherboard and graphics card designs were set to increase rather significantly. At the time, however, the reasoning for this was more than a little unclear. – Following a report via the New York Times, however, it has been revealed that with certain trade tariff exemptions between America and China now expiring, this has caused import taxes to increase which, by proxy, means that this issue almost certainly isn’t going to be limited to just ASUS. Put simply, we can expect to see pretty much the vast majority, if not all, PC component prices increase throughout at least early 2021 and possibly by quite an eye-watering amount!
It’s not exactly a secret, whether you pay attention to politics/economics or not, that the most recent American administration has been placing rather terse restrictions on imports from China. Largely as a means to attempt to bolster their own domestic manufacturing. – While this did initially see a number of exemptions being made to technology manufacturers, however, who primarily create their goods in China, with those time limits now expired, higher import tax rates will now apply which, put simply, means that getting a graphics card made in China to America will now cost an additional 7.5% or, in some cases, as much as 25% more!
Given that a significant portion of our community hail from the UK or Europe, sadly we’re just getting caught in the crossfire here as, in a nutshell, pretty much all economies and product development revolve around both China and America. – This isn’t an issue we created, nor would it seem one that we’re directly involved in, but the sad reality is that unless America’s new administration can look to apply some fresh terms with China, we can pretty much expect all graphics cards, motherboards, monitors and anything else PC related, that’s probably made in China, to cost a lot more in the very near future!
Put simply, if you’re after a PC upgrade, buy it now because within literally days, it might have a notable chunk added to the price tag for seemingly no good reason!
What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!
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