Before getting lost in a litany of political and topical considerations, a small lesson in economics seems to us about. What Donald Trump wants to do is impose customs prices on products from countries carefully selected by the American president. It is still necessary to know what a customs rate is (also called customs right). Generally established as a percentage, it is an import tax as soon as it crosses the border of the receiver country of the imported product. Usual element used within the framework of economic protectionism, the aim of customs is to make foreign products more expensive to import, to discourage consumption and promote local industry. If you understand absolutely nothing about this gibberish, let’s go through the example. Imagine that, overnight, France establishes a 25% customs right on German sausages. Except that you have an import company for German sausages based in Lille, and your foreign sausages are cost you 5 euros per kilo. With this new customs right, they will therefore cost you 6 euros and 25 cents for a kilo.
So here you are, as a French company, to pay more for your German sausages because the government has decided to introduce a customs tariff on this product, in order to promote the production of French sausages, my good sir. The problem is that your job is German sausage, not that of Strasbourg. So to overcome the price increased to import, you will logically pass the hot potato to your consumers – the last link of the food chain – and increase your resale price by 25%. And at the end, who has it in the baba? It is Philippe, 56, who particularly appreciates German sausages, and who used to get it from your business for several decades.
Now that you have understood what a customs rate is, let’s come back to this dear Donald Trump. A few days ago, the American president announced impose a customs right of 25% on all products imported into the USA from Canada and Mexico from February 4 (yes, it’s today). In parallel, a similar process of 10% has been activated (since today) on all Chinese products. For information, Canada, Mexico and China are the three countries most targeted by American imports (15.6% of goods imported from Mexico, 12.6% of Canada and 13.5% of China, between 1992 and November 2024 – chiffres US Census Bureau). In response, Justin Trudeau immediately announced customs tariffs on all American products in Canada. Except that since this announcement, Canada and Mexico have obtained from Donald Trump that it pushes the implementation of this one month tax (BBC), against the implementation of a border plan to combat fentanyl traffic (a border plan already planned, although it has happened since December with regard to Canada). In other words, the customs tariffs targeting Canada and Mexico should only be effective in 30 days, the time to discuss an economic agreement with the USA. You have to follow huh, because the friend Trump has a strong trend in hyperaction. Besides, it is very possible that once this paper is published, it ends obsolete within 24 hours that will follow it.
If Canada and Mexico have avoided the sentence (even if it still hangs over their heads for a month), this is not the case with China, whose customs tariffs have been established at 10% since 00h01 this Tuesday, February 4. So let us ask ourselves on his case, since it is the one that interests us most about video games. There is no secret that, if the large part of consoles manufacturers and most of the game developers intended for the Western world do not come from China, their physical production does not take place on site. This implies that importing a Nintendo Switch built in China and then imported from China to the USA will cost the US 10% more to American companies who wish to resell it at home. Ditto for the PS5 or Xbox Series X/S. As for portable consoles directly from China (think of brands like Miyoo, Anbernic, Ayn or Retroid Pocket), the sanction may be even more severe: in total, these products may be affected by 35% customs taxes American border. Retrogamecorps, the American Youtuber (living in Hawaii – therefore directly concerned) well known to retro consoles lovers went there with his small Excel table to give an idea of the increase in prices according to the chosen consoles. Thus, as an example, if it was necessary to count on $ 218 to obtain a Retroid Pocket 5, an American interested in the console will now have to pay $ 321.
Seeing lots of questions about US tariffs on handhelds, especially because the de minimis exception (which previously allowed the 25% tariff to not apply to handhelds) is suspended. With the additional 10% increase, we are potentially looking at a 35% increase in handheld prices pic.twitter.com/vnoQCGO5Vz
— Retro Game Corps (@RetroGameCorps) February 3, 2025
In the United States, it takes no more to alarm various organizations dedicated to the defense of American players. Entertainment Software Association (ESA) notably made a declaration to VGC : “Video games are one of the most popular forms of entertainment and appreciated by Americans of all ages. Imposing customs tariffs on video game consoles and associated products would have a negative impact on hundreds of millions of Americans and would affect significant industry contributions to the American economy. We are delighted to collaborate with the administration and the congress in order to find solutions to maintain economic growth sustained by our sector ”. For the time being, only China is impacted by these customs duties, but ultimately, if Mexico came to join the dance, the prices could explode even more, especially on physical copies. Indeed, the country located in the south of the United States is a very large disc exporter to its northern neighbor: according to the Mat Piscatella analyst of the Research Institute Circana, all this could ultimately lead to a reduction in the number of Outings of physical games on the market, especially since the physique has already been at half mast for years: “With prices of 25 % on imports from Mexico on the horizon, I can imagine a sharp drop in the number of Disk games that will be physically coming out in the United States, because a large part of this production infrastructure is in Mexico. ” He then speculates: according to him, this increase in the sale price of physical versions could also be impactful directly on the digital versions, in order to keep a form of parity between the two consumption modes.
Alright, well, video games.
With 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico on the way, I can see a sharp downtick in the number of disc-based games that get released physically in the US, as much of that production infrastructure is in Mexico.
If they do get made, I expect higher prices both phys & dig.
— Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social)2025-01-21T14: 38: 47.618Z
So then?
Well yes. If the Americans decide to put themselves in the hand, it’s their problem, right? And then, China, Canada, Mexico, all that is on the other side of the world, what do we have to do with these economic heights? You would be wrong to think like this because the friend Trump has already announced it : He plans to impose customs tariffs of this kind on the whole of the European Union. So far, nothing has yet been made, but the American president has indeed reported it, with his usual verve: “They do not take our cars, they do not take our agricultural products, they take almost nothing , and we take everything from them. Millions of cars, huge amounts of food and agricultural products ”. So obviously, it was to qualify: certainly, in 2023, the European Union exported around $ 503 billion to goods to the United States, while it imported 347 billion. On the other hand, if we are talking about services, the European Union has exported $ 292 billion to the United States and imported $ 396 billion. On the whole, we are therefore on an almost equitable exchange: $ 795 billion in EU exports to the United States, and $ 743 billion in the United States to the EU. Despite these balanced figures, Trump therefore wants to strike the European Union with his economic weapon.
For the time being, it is more a threat than an implementation co -threw, but it could still be effective in the coming weeks. If this is the case, then various major sectors of the French economy could be undermined, among which aeronautics, luxury, alcohol or pharmaceutics, these markets being the most exporting to the United States . Regarding video games, the impact should be indirect: American multinationals like Microsoft or Apple could increase the prices of their products worldwide to overcome the shortfall, a direct consequence of customs tariffs at home. Thus, in the long term, if the Lambda American will be the most affected by such a policy, it could fairly quickly affect a whole bunch of high-tech products (yes, your iPhone will be more expensive too) and video games sold by We. And then, there is a good chance that the European market is setting on American market prices, under penalty of seeing the number of VPNs used to increase further drastically (which will prevent an American from obtaining a European digital version of ‘A game if the latter is supposed to be less expensive?). In terms of Japanese companies, the impact should be less, especially since some of them have already made arrangements to avoid this kind of concern in the future: during the first term of Donald Trump, the customs tariffs had notably forced Nintendo to relocate about 50 % of its manufacturing processes in Vietnam in order to alleviate the rise in prices. Considering the evolution of things, more companies could thus diversify their supply chain by moving away from China for the manufacture of products. This trend could ultimately limit the increase in prices of products intended for the American market, in particular the long -awaited Switch 2.