If you’re planning on buying a pair of AirPods, an Apple Watch, EarPods, certain iMacs, a Homepod, or numerous other Apple products, you should do it soon. All of those products will be hit with a 15% tariff starting this Sunday.
Bloomberg reports the tariffs, part of the ongoing U.S. and China trade dispute, were all entered into the Federal Register today and will go into effect on 12:01 a.m. local time on Sunday in Washington, D.C. They go into effect for products entering the United States or that are being pulled from warehouses for use in the U.S.
Apple products affected by the tariffs include the Apple Watch (and its bands), AirPods, HomePod, some Beats headphones, and some iMacs. iPhone repair parts could also be affected, as well as the NAND flash storage used in iPhones.
Apple industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said back in August that he believes Apple will absorb most of the U.S. tariff charges on its devices for the “mid-short term” instead of raising prices for consumers.
Apple has been working to move some of its production to countries like India and Vietnam, which is a long term move to diversify their production beyond China and ease tariff concerns.
Some Apple accessories, such as power adapters, cases, cables and such are already subject to an import tax, separate from the one that will hit some Apple products on Sunday.