Tariffs Would Especially Hurt Tech Startups, Say Cao Gadgets, Chibitronics

Tech startups are among the many hundreds of innovators from various industries opposing a third proposed tranche of 25 percent levies on Chinese imports (see 1808150018), comments in docket USTR-2016-0026 show. Cao Gadgets develops wireless sensor tags for a variety of IoT uses and markets the tags through its own online store, commented owner Mike Cao. It develops the “software/firmware portion of our products” entirely in the U.S., and buys integrated circuits and other electronic components from American producers like Intel, Microchip and ON Semiconductor, he said. His company then exports its goods to printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) contractors in China, he said: PCBA is a “labor intensive process,” with virtually no low-cost, high-volume U.S. PCBA contractors. Jie Qi and Andrew Huang started Chibitronics, making educational electronics for schools and libraries, they commented Wednesday. Additional “tariffs on electronic parts will deprive American children of access to technology education,” they said.