Good news for Apple – its Apple Watch is now exempt from Chinese import tariffs

Apple Watch Series 4 Black Titanium 2 Hero (Image credit: iMore)

What you need to know

Apple asked for Apple Watch to be made exempt from tariffs.
The request has been approved.
A 15% tariff had been imposed.

Following the news that Apple's iPhone partner, Foxconn, now has enough people to deal with iPhone 12 demand, the company has more reason for cheer after its request to have tariffs removed from Apple Watch was approved.

According to a Bloomberg report, the US Trade Representative has approved Apple's request to have its watches made exempt from Chinese import tariffs. The tariffs had been imposed by President Trump at a rate of 15%, although that was reduced by half before the tariffs went into effect on February 15.

Apple argued in its request last year that its product, as a consumer electronic device, should be exempted because "it is not strategically important or related to 'Made in China 2025' or other Chinese industrial programs."

Apple also argued that it had been unable to find a supplier outside of China that would have been able to meet the demand for Apple Watches. Apple's wearable is the most popular smartwatch on the market by some margin.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.