China Still Dominant Import Source for Tablets, Laptops, but Vietnam Rising
Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S6, released for sale on Sept. 6 and marked on the packaging as a product of Vietnam, typifies the growing volume of Vietnamese-sourced tablets and laptops imported to the U.S. under Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 8471.30.01. Though the overwhelming majority of those goods continue to originate from China, Vietnam is emerging as a more important country of origin, according to Census Bureau trade data accessed through the International Trade Commission’s DataWeb tool.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
The U.S. imported 97.9 million units of goods under 8471.30.01 from all countries last year, 91.4 percent of them from China, DataWeb said. That was well above the 75 percent threshold the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative set as the basis for deferring tablets and laptops, among other consumer tech goods like smartphones, set-top boxes and videogame consoles, from Section 301 tariff exposure until Dec. 15.
Even amid U.S.-China trade tensions that are well more than a year old, Chinese tablet and laptop imports are still rising, though trade data will bear watching in the next few months to detect any significant shifts in sourcing activity. The U.S. imported 50.5 million units from China in the year to date through July, 92.6 percent of goods under subheading 8471.30.01 shipped to the U.S. from all countries and a 9.8 percent increase from the January-July period of 2018, DataWeb said.
Vietnam, though a relatively small player, shipped tablets and laptops here at a more rapid pace. Its 2.8 million units in 2019's first seven months were a 13 percent increase from the same 2018 period, DataWeb said. Notwithstanding the Galaxy Tab S6's starting $649 selling price, Vietnam remains a haven for commodity-priced goods compared with China, though the customs value of the Vietnamese imports is rising, as is the unit volume. The U.S. imported 8471.30.01 goods from Vietnam with an average value of $173.26 in January-July, a 28 percent increase from 2018, DataWeb said. The average Chinese import had a $441.91 customs value, nearly three times higher than that of the Vietnamese import, but the Chinese good's average was 2.9 percent lower than that of a year earlier.