Your next Galaxy phone won’t cost more after US tariff exemptions

It's been a roller coaster of a month for the tech industry so far. US President Donald Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on most major production hubs in addition to a baseline 10% tariff on all countries. This raised the serious possibility of Samsung having to significantly raise the price of Galaxy phones and other products in the United States.

The president appears to have had a change of heart going into the weekend, as he announced tariff exemptions for key consumer electronics products like smartphones, computers, memory products, and more.

Vietnam is where Samsung phones are made for export to the United States. The country was hit with a 46% tariff, meaning that Samsung would have to pay a 46% surcharge over the import value when it brought those phones into the US.

Samsung's other option was to use its production facilities in India to export phones to the United States. India had a 26% tariff rate, which while high, was still significantly lower than Vietnam. Either way, Samsung would either have to raise prices for consumers or reduce its profit margins.

Many major tech companies have been in discussions with the administration, highlighting that the prices of consumer electronics would raise to unsustainable levels if the tariff regime was kept unchanged.

Apple was probably the biggest voice behind this as the US is its biggest market and its manufactures 90% of all iPhones in China which was hit with the highest tariff rate of 145%. Based on some estimates, this could have potentially pushed up the price of the iPhone 16 Pro Max from $1,199 to $2,937.

Now with a tariff exemption in place for smartphones, computers, memory chips and other storage products, even from the 10% baseline global rate, it can be business as usual or Samsung and other companies, at least until such time as the administration doesn't make another change to the tariff regime.