Will tariffs affect PC component prices in CANADA?

[uno99]

Forgive if this has been asked and answered (I did a quick search first), but wondering if I should panic buy for my build I was planning to do at the end of the summer.

Will parts prices increase in Canada as they will in the US? 

Seems like if retailers like CanadaComputers are importing directly from asia they wont, but if they buy from distributors in the US they will?

 

TIA y'all

[PDifolco]

Given that tariffs are created, increased, lowered changed or cancelled on a daily basis by Trump's Tariff Lottery, noone knows, even him...

[cmndr]

Most PC manufacturing is NOT in the US. Tariffs and counter tariffs likely won't affect Canada THAT much other than that they stand to tank various country's economies. 

In general, I'd focus on increasing income moreso than trying to time the purchase of items. 

[dizmo]

4 minutes ago, cmndr said:

Most PC manufacturing is NOT in the US. Tariffs and counter tariffs likely won't affect Canada THAT much other than that they stand to tank various country's economies. 

In general, I'd focus on increasing income moreso than trying to time the purchase of items. 

While that's true, a lot of parts come through US ports, and thus will be subject to US tariffs. It could even be double tariffed depending on what tariffs Canada imposes on the US, and how it chooses to implement them. Increasing income isn't really possible for some people (students, those with other expenses, etc).

 

Panic buying is never a good decision though. No one can predict what's going to happen, personally I'd just wait and buy when you were planning to buy.

[cmndr]

1 minute ago, dizmo said:

While that's true, a lot of parts come through US ports, and thus will be subject to US tariffs. It could even be double tariffed depending on what tariffs Canada imposes on the US, and how it chooses to implement them. Increasing income isn't really possible for some people (students, those with other expenses, etc).

 

Panic buying is never a good decision though. No one can predict what's going to happen, personally I'd just wait and buy when you were planning to buy.

I'd definitely want to fact check myself but laptops are mostly coming from Asian ODMs. TVs and monitors probably as well. 
I imagine that individual components generally have more leeway. 

 

I could imagine supply chain disruptions. It's very possible that things get trucked into Canada from the US. 

[Thomas53]

To most Canadian residents, no, because they don't all depend on U.S. importers.

Now, if the Canadian government were smart, they'd increase the amount of goods shipped directly to them and avoid the U.S. altogether and then sell them to the U.S. market, where, at least until 14:00 on 04/25 there is no tariff on goods sent from Canada. With Herr Schitzenpantz in office, I'm not stupid enough to even try and guess beyond that. BTW it's 13:37 on the 25th when I wrote this.

[dizmo]

3 minutes ago, cmndr said:

I'd definitely want to fact check myself but laptops are mostly coming from Asian ODMs. TVs and monitors probably as well. 
I imagine that individual components generally have more leeway. 

 

I could imagine supply chain disruptions. It's very possible that things get trucked into Canada from the US. 

Right, but if the person you get the parts from is in the US, then they will have already paid the tariffs by the time you import them into Canada.

[cmndr]

4 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Right, but if the person you get the parts from is in the US, then they will have already paid the tariffs by the time you import them into Canada.

My understanding is that in many cases the imports are direct and that indirect imports generally have no additional taxes unless there's some value add component (a la VAT). Even if there IS an extra tax... at some point that'll just turn into a direct import process. 

With that said... I'm NOT an international tax expert and I'm NOT a master at things like transfer pricing, IFRS, US GAAP, etc. 

[uno99]

Thanks everyone for the answers. Seems like my assumptions are likely correct (and no on really knows for sure).

Unless we get an insider who works for one of the large retailers in Canada saying otherwise - It's likely they are buying direct and their purchased products land at a port in BC instead of USA, thus avoiding tariffs the US has in place against China.

[TetraSky]

It should not. But if I know anything about pure corporate greed, is that these companies will raise prices in Canada regardless to match the US price.

 

We have already seen Sony raising their prices in many countries by about 25%. But not in the US. Meaning the rest of the world is subsidizing the US tariffs. Ain't that just great?

Of course, they don't go out and say it outright. They blamed inflation. But if that was the case, it would have gone up in the US as well.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/sony-increases-ps5-price-everywhere-except-in-the-us