We are creating this thread to consolidate community discussion of U.S. tariffs and their effect on Framework. Please note that this forum is not a place for political discussions. Off-topic and political messages will be removed.
Any new threads on the topic will be merged into this thread.
Thank you.
Essentially the title. Obviously reciprocal tariffs will impose duties on American made goods that are imported but what about Framework? The laptops are manufactured by Compal in Taiwan so they aren’t “American-made” other than being the product of an American company.
If reciprocal tariffs impact Framework’s access to the EU bloc and the lowest end SKUs are already getting killed off for the American market, I wonder what the impact will be on the European market.
EU doesn’t have extra tariffs on Taiwan…
You misunderstand the question. Are tariffs just regarding country of creation or the nationality of the company importing them?
Consider GDP vs GNP when thinking about that question
Because tariffs are just a tax, the EU could decide to tax any American imports, regardless of country of origin
Food for thought
I suppose it’s mostly designed around just country of origin as opposed to nationality of companies but I see no reason conceptually why it couldn’t be designed that way.
After all, the object of these tariffs is political punishment more than anything else
Country of origin for the goods is Taiwan. That’s where it’s made and shipped from. I guess you’re asking since Framework is headquarted in the US could the EU tariff all goods shipped by them? I mean, maybe, but that’s not generally how things are done and would be an even larger nightmare. Country that a package comes from is straightforward. Headquarters of the company that is selling the product is much less straightforward.
Sure and I know that, just curious what people think of the idea or likelihood of implementing tariffs in such a fashion. It seems to me that people have lost their heads already. Why not really go all the way?
The US has lost their heads - not so much the EU. I highly doubt the EU would do this because as I stated it’s incredibly difficult to implement and not actually particularly useful to them.
Reciprocal tariffs in general aren’t very useful in a strict economic sense. Yet they are being imposed anyways to inflict political punishment. Same as the original American tariffs. I suppose the tariffs as is aren’t imposing duties on Frameworks products imported into the EU but I think it’s an interesting thought experiment.
Interesting to see how this all shakes out.
Let’s be clear, these aren’t reciprocal tariffs. In (practically?) no cases do they actually match the other country’s tariffs, and even for countries with 0% tariffs and where the US had a trade surplus they got hit with 10%.
As the saying goes, “may you live in interesting times” 
Well, very interesting times we live in
Awesome news and thanks for sharing! I have a feeling that this will help the issue greatly.
They are facing a war with China and need US protection. It’s not unlikely they got pressure from US, like Ukraine.
This move of Taiwan does not mean there are no more tariffs for Framework. The HYTE company was charged tariffs for electronics plus the Aluminium tariff. This means, Framework laptops will still face Aluminium/steel tariffs at least.
Miracle
Ignorance is bliss, as they say.
The U.S. tariffs, however, do not apply to semiconductors, a major Taiwanese export.
This only means that the chips/semiconductor components are free of tariffs!! And will only work if framework imports those semiconductor components and starts manufacturing in the US. They don’t, and it will take time, if they choose to do so. A final framework product is not the same as a semiconductor.
The point is to force companies to manufacturer in the us, that’s why only the chips/semiconductor are free of tariffs.
tldr: the apple’s in a apple pie are not the same thing, as a the apple’s themselves.
In any case, the price needs to be raised for US customers, if they decide to start a new assembly line just for the US market. They would have additional costs for buildings, logistics, staff and all the other things around it. This needs to be paid by US costumers.
Larger companies like Apple have decided to just increase their prices for US customers. Maybe because this will last at maximum 3.5 years until a new US government is elected.
It’s even worse, the US car tariffs also applies to any computers and hard disks:
https://www.heise.de/en/news/US-auto-tariffs-apply-to-all-computers-and-hard-disks-10343085.html
It’s official, Framework pauses sales in the USA, as they said on Mastadon.
I cannot see the article on 404 Media without login. Below are some media articles that I found about the topic.
A chip is not a laptop, and hard disks not considered chip/semiconductor.
Starting tomorrow, the base tariff will go from the 10% baseline to 32% for export’s from Taiwan to the US. At that point, it will become for Framework somewhat difficult to export at all to the US.