Trump tariffs risk US electronics shortages, Taiwan's Pegatron says

Wen-Yee Lee

Mon, Apr 28, 2025, 3:14 AM 2 min read

By Wen-Yee Lee

TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan's Pegatron, an important supplier to Apple and Dell, said connected Monday that President Donald Trump's tariffs were confusing U.S. customers and risked starring to shortages of user electronics successful the United States.

Washington's on-again, off-again levies person created uncertainty for U.S. retailers and disrupted decisions connected shipments, the electronics manufacturer's president T.H. Tung told Reuters connected the sidelines of an awards event.

"Within 2 months, shelves successful the United States ... mightiness lucifer those successful third-world countries, wherever radical sojourn section stores and markets lone to find bare shelves, each due to the fact that everyone is waiting and seeing," Tung said.

This month, Trump abruptly paused immoderate tariffs targeting trading partners including Vietnam, Indonesia and India, wherever Pegatron has manufacturing bases. A 10% levy connected astir each goods imported into the U.S. remains, however.

Though meant to supply immoderate alleviation portion commercialized talks instrumentality place, Tung said U.S. importers volition not needfully instrumentality vantage of the intermission by ramping up shipments if they judge the 10% tariff mightiness beryllium repealed.

Trump's actions had disrupted the seamless logistics astatine the centre of the modern planetary proviso chain, Tung said, but added that Pegatron would instrumentality to its plans.

"Just due to the fact that Trump raises tariffs doesn't mean the remainder of the satellite volition bash the same. Taiwanese declaration manufacturers are sticking to their overseas plans," helium said.

"We won't instantly set our semipermanent plans conscionable due to the fact that of 2 oregon 3 months of tariff changes. Manufacturing bases necessitate semipermanent planning," helium added

Pegatron has been diversifying its manufacturing locations distant from China since Trump's archetypal term, expanding to countries successful Southeast Asia arsenic good arsenic Mexico.

Tung said the manufacturing locations were not decided by Taiwanese declaration manufacturers themselves, however, but had to beryllium negotiated with customers.

(Reporting by Wen-Yee Lee; Editing by Joe Bavier)