Tariffs are making this tech giant’s laptops more expensive

Acer, one of the largest computer companies in the world, is raising the price of its laptops sold in the US due to the Trump administration’s 10 percent tariff on goods manufactured and imported from China.

Jason Chen, the CEO of Acer, made the announcement during an interview with The Telegraph. Chen said the price of Acer laptops in the US will be going up 10 percent starting in March, to match the cost of the 10 percent import tariff. This means Acer’s latest CoPilot+ laptop, the Swift AI 14, which is currently priced at $1,200, could go up to $1,320, a $120 increase.

“We will have to adjust the end user price to reflect the tariff,” Chen said to The Telegraph. “We think 10 percent probably will be the default price increase because of the import tax. It’s very straightforward.”

Other companies could raise prices further than 10 percent

Acer is the fifth-highest seller of laptops in the US

Electronics and machinery account for over $207 billion worth of goods entering the US from China, and the Trump Administration’s 10 percent import tariff could have wide-ranging impacts on the price of these goods for consumers. Since the tariffs do not affect goods that left China before the end of February, the price increase from Acer will not occur until March, when new stock arrives.

Chen also made the interesting point that other companies could use Trump’s tariff on China as an excuse to raise prices even higher than 10 percent. Until other PC manufacturers announce their pricing plans, it remains to be seen if this will happen. But ultimately, it would not be surprising to see companies do this to take advantage of consumers and blame tariffs.

Acer is the fifth-highest seller of computers in the US, trailing heavyweights like Dell and Apple. While most of its laptops are made in China, Acer moved the assembly of its desktop computers outside of China during Trump’s first term due to tariff uncertainty. Chen says Acer is exploring different options to move its laptop manufacturing outside of China, and that the US could be “one of the options.” The Consumer Technology Association reports that 80 percent of US laptop imports come from China and that tariffs could cost US consumers up to $143 billion and drive sales downward.

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