Trump's Tariffs Would Make Gaming PCs and Consoles Ludicrously Expensive

"Tariffs are regressive taxes that Americans pay."

Hall of Gamers

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has proposed sweeping tariffs on foreign goods, especially from China, against which he advocates a massive hike of 60 percent — that is, on top of the 10 percent "global tariff" he wants to roll out.

History can tell you why this is a really bad idea — but why go that deep? A recent report from the Consumer Technology Association spells out the immediate and pricey consequences these import taxes would have for pretty much any American that uses electronic devices — and especially the nearly two-thirds of us who play video games.

That's right, gamers — you thought gaming was expensive now? As Tom's Hardware reports, the analysis indicates that the tariffs could see the prices of gaming laptops increase by an absurd 45 percent. So a decent, $1,000 portable rig, for example, would cost $450 more — money you could've happily blown elsewhere, like on Counter-Strike skins.

Gaming consoles, like the PS5 and the Xbox Series X, would jump by nearly 40 percent in price, or by about $246. Computer accessories and peripherals would cost 10.9 percent more, and monitors would shoot up by 31.2 percent.

Tax to the Max

Applying these tariffs would be complicated, since electronics companies often assemble their products in multiple countries, though most do depend heavily on China.

While some have made increased efforts to source manufacturing elsewhere in recent years, this is still "not in the volumes that you would need to supplant that Chinese production," Ed Brzytwa, CTA's vice president of International Trade, told Tom's.

It's worth noting that a president doesn't need congressional approval to impose tariffs. President Joe Biden, for example, passed a ludicrous 100 percent tax on Chinese EVs this year. So if the political will is there, Trump could very well enact some of his own, as he did in his previous term in office.

Companies could respond by trying to build manufacturing facilities in India or Vietnam, Brzytwa said, but that would take years. Unless America, to make up for the dearth of goods, suddenly builds the infrastructure and trains an enormous workforce to rival China's electronic manufacturing overnight, prices will go up.

Price to Pay

The upshot, as many economists argue, is that tariffs punish average citizens, not whichever country they're supposed to target.

"Tariffs are regressive taxes that Americans pay. They're not paid by a foreign government," Brzytwa told Tom's. "They're taxes that importers in the United States pay and foreign governments and foreign countries do not pay those tariffs."

"Whether it's a 60 percent tariff, 10 percent tariff or 2000 percent tariff, it is going to raise prices," Christine McDaniel, an international trade economist at George Mason University, told the outlet.

It's not even guaranteed that the tariffs, which are protective by nature, would help American businesses. As McDaniel points out, some US manufacturers were hard hit by Trump's steel tariffs, which suddenly saddled them with expensive material costs.

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