UPDATE (2/21 – 12:01PM)
Shortly after this article was originally published, an update to the tariff policy was made. Once the original tariffs were deemed unlawful, President Trump enacted a temporary 10% global tariff. As of today, the President has already made another change, with the global tariff rate being raised to 15%.
Hi everyone, after nearly a year of sweeping tariffs and ongoing “trade wars” between the United States and foreign economic powers, we might be seeing what we might assume to be the “Light at the end of the tunnel.” The tariffs levied last year were deemed illegal by the Supreme Court (A check and balance of Executive power as allotted by Marbury v. Madison in 1803).
The rationale is debated, and the effectiveness of them over the past year is also debatable, but as a result, we saw rising costs in most consumer electronics coming out of China that varied drastically as the total percentage levied changed multiple times as the year went on. For more information, please see our original tariff-related coverage.
What are Tariffs?
Tariffs, in short and simple terms, are an additional tax for goods from a foreign country that is imposed based on the value of the good when being imported into the country that purchased it. That fee is either absorbed by the company selling the good or passed on to the consumer to protect the company’s profit margin. For example, Retroid opted to eat the cost of the tariff and ended up charging more for their shipping costs.
AliExpress added taxes and import duties to its US storefront. Nintendo got around this by manufacturing theSwitch 2 for the US markets in Vietnam, where the Tariff was lower (15%) to avoid those set on China (anywhere from ~45%- 140%), and other companies like AliExpress of Anbernic stocked their US warehouses full of products to avoid paying tariffs.
What Will Actually Change?
Truly a time to be alive. But all that is changing. Yesterday (02/20/2026), these tariffs were deemed unlawful under the International Emergency Economic Response Act (1977). In theory, this gives cause to remove tariffs altogether, but it isn’t going to be that simple. Already, the current administration has enacted another act to impose a temporary 10% global tariff per the Trade Act of 1974 for 150 days and will be effective February 24th (with notable exclusions that don’t include electronics) on TOP of the current tariffs levied.
So that’s actually worse news for the community, right? Maybe, but this situation is very new and ongoing to the point where speculation isn’t that productive. There are more acts and trade laws that can be finagled and used to get a similar result, and the branches of the US Government need more time to do their jobs. So time will ultimately tell.
As we saw with the previous year, things can and will change, the community will adapt, and we will find new and moderately affordable ways to play Megabonk of GameHub. In the meantime, please just be kind to one another, and we will update this as things change.
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