Trade Group Says Making Tech Entirely in the U.S. Would Cost $230 Billion

Manufacturing consumer electronics entirely in the United States, as President Trump has pushed companies to do, would cost the tech industry $230 billion, the Consumer Technology Association estimated in a new analysis, Ars Technica reported this week.

The trade group’s report examined 10 product categories: computer monitors, laptops, robotic vacuums, smart speakers, smartphones, smartwatches, televisions, video game consoles, wireless earbuds and wireless headphones.

Smartphones sit in a “league of their own,” the association said, as both the most expensive product to make in the United States and the one Americans consider least dispensable. Even accounting for the tariffs in place today, building a smartphone fully in the United States would cost 152 percent more, the group estimated, and some of that would inevitably reach consumers if companies are to protect profit margins and keep investors satisfied.

The steepest increases would hit products built around processors, memory and advanced displays. Laptops would cost 93 percent more to manufacture and smartwatches 97 percent more. At the low end, televisions would cost 41 percent more.

Most companies would not pass all of the added costs to customers right away, but the association’s research indicated they would pass on between 25 and 50 percent of the increase. On average, it estimated, “the 10 products in our report would see a weighted average price increase of 27 to 55 percent.”

“A household replacing a phone, a laptop, and a television over a typical replacement cycle would face that increase on each purchase,” the association reported.

Households already strained by rent, groceries and fuel costs are delaying technology purchases until prices fall, the report said. Since few people will go long without a smartphone, the result could be fewer devices sold over time, thinner margins and, eventually, spooked investors — which would make reshoring supply chains harder still, despite Mr. Trump’s insistence that it will ultimately attract more investment to the United States. Fully reshoring each product category would take years, and the association questioned how many businesses could afford to wait.