(Credit: PCMag/Michael Kan)
US electronics, including laptops, have long been manufactured in China, but a new study finds that the tech industry has “shifted sharply away” from Chinese manufacturing in response to President Trump’s tariffs.
The shift was so drastic that only 22% of consumer technology imports came from China last year, down from 45% the year before, and 54% in 2022, according to a report from the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), which represents over 1,200 companies, including Apple, Nvidia, and Sony.
(Credit: CTA)“Vietnam is now a leading supplier, accounting for nearly a quarter of US consumer technology imports,” the CTA added. For the first two months of 2026, consumer tech imports from China fell even lower to 12%. Vietnam accounted for 23%, Mexico held 18%, and Taiwan had 14%.
The CTA analyzed import data from the US Census Bureau and mapped the numbers to the product categories using their respective tariff codes. The study estimates that about 60% of laptop and tablet shipments to the US in 2025 originated in Vietnam; in 2025, about 66% of the imports originated from China. In 2022, nearly all laptop imports to the US came from China.
(Credit: CTA)Gaming consoles saw a dramatic shift as well: Last year, 58% of the imports came from Vietnam, a reversal from 2024, when 86% came from China. Smartphones show a similar pattern, except US-bound production has been moving more to India, where Apple uses local factories to assemble the iPhone.
(Credit: CTA)
(Credit: CTA)The shift away from China is a direct response to President Trump imposing tariffs on the country as part of his effort to bring manufacturing back to the US. But even though many companies shifted their manufacturing outside China to avoid import duties, Trump’s trade war quickly expanded to target a wide range of Asian markets, including Vietnam and India. On the plus side, the White House refrained from tariffing laptops, smartphones, and chips. But no exemption was made for video game consoles.
The CTA estimates game consoles saw the biggest impact, with the products facing an average 18% tariff hike. Wireless headphones and earbuds came in second, facing an average 16% tariff. In third was smart home devices, which saw an average 11% tariff rate.
(Credit: CTA)“In total, consumer technology importers paid $23.5 billion in tariffs in 2025—more than five times the prior year ($4.04 billion),” according to the CTA, which has long described tariffs as a tax on American consumers.
Overall, the average tariff rate for all consumer tech imports reached 9% during October as retailers stocked up on “high-tariff categories like smartphones, gaming consoles, and wireless headphones and earbuds” ahead of the holiday shopping season. The average tariff rate then fell to 5% in February as imports “tilted in favor of lower-tariff product categories,” the CTA told PCMag.
(Credit: CTA)Since then, the whole tariff picture drastically changed after the Supreme Court in February invalidated most of the tariffs that Trump imposed last year on countries including China, India, Vietnam, and Taiwan. The White House has even been forced to refund numerous companies that paid the duties, sparking class-action lawsuits from consumers demanding that console makers Nintendo and Sony return the funds to customers.
The CTA told PCMag the study coincidentally concluded in February, so the association doesn’t have any data on how the tariff landscape has changed following the Supreme Court ruling. But days later, Trump quickly imposed a 10% global tariff as a replacement, which is now facing legal challenges.
The CTA is also concerned that the White House will eventually issue more tariffs, specifically targeting foreign-made chips, using a different legal authority outside the Supreme Court's February ruling. The association joined other tech groups in sending a letter to White House trade officials last week, urging the Trump administration to drop the semiconductor-focused tariffs due to the potential economic harm.
“Memory chip shortages and the related surge in memory prices have already resulted in widely reported increases in the price of consumer products, as well as delays or deferrals in new product launches. Tariffs on semiconductors and derivative products would worsen market conditions, limiting technology choice for American consumers and businesses,” the letter says.
The CTA's executive chair, Gary Shapiro, also said in a statement: “CEOs are spending more time now focusing on tariffs and hiring lawyers and trying to figure it out than they are producing innovative products which make Americans' lives better.”