The US has delayed additional tariffs on Chinese-made game consoles. This news comes from Gamesindustry.biz who say that it will instead be imposed on December 15th.
Announced yesterday by The Office of the US Trade Representative, it is certainly an interesting move when considering how close the initial date was. Whereas the original date for this tariff was September 1st, the date has now been moved back with half a month to spare.
So Why Is the US Delaying This Tariff?
The reason for the delay? To avoid a potential impact during the holiday shopping season.
In a statement from President Trump, he said:
“We’re doing this for Christmas season, just in case some of the tariffs would have an impact on U.S. customers, which, so far, they’ve had virtually none… The only impact has been that we’ve collected almost $60 billion from China – compliments of China. But just in case they might have an impact on people, what we’ve done is we’ve delayed it so that they won’t be relevant for the Christmas shopping season.”
However, the article brings up one crucial matter. The country doesn’t pay additional taxes on the goods, the businesses who have the goods brought in do. This ultimately results in a higher price for the consumer. So, when Trump continues to defend that there will be very little impact, it appears to be either a lie or suggest a lack of understanding.
One final point that should be considered is the recent resurgence of political strife around video games. I have to question why they would want to make games consoles easier to obtain for this brief window. Is this evidence that the administration was using games to cover up deeper issues? Or was this a political agreement between the two nations? While this is merely speculation, it does seem that there is more going on behind the curtain with this delay than there appears.
Any thoughts on this news? Think that games are becoming too political? Let us know!
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From Swindon, England. Jacob loves all nerdy pursuits like movies, games, science, history, etc. His favourite game is Jade Empire. For any inquiries, you can shoot him an email at [email protected]
