U.S. imports of computers and parts nearly doubled, and Mexico's share hit a record

U.S. imports of computers and computer parts reached $157.6 billion in May–July 2026, 91% more than in the same months of 2025. Mexico supplied a larger share of the machines than in any three-month period in data going back to 2010.

HS 8471 covers automatic data processing machines and units, and HS 8473 their parts and those of other office machines. Together they made up 16.7% of all U.S. imports in those three months, against 10.0% a year earlier. Almost none of it paid duty: HS 8471 imports carried $147 million in calculated duty, an effective rate of 0.13%, and HS 8473 imports paid 0.3%.

Over the 12 months to July, HS 8471 imports totaled $363.5 billion, 91% more than a year earlier and more than three times the $103.2 billion of 2023. July's $43.8 billion was the largest month on record, and HS 8473 also set a monthly record at $18.4 billion.

Digital processing units carry the increase

HS 8471 imports rose 77% to $114.4 billion in May–July. One six-digit line holds most of it: 8471.50, "processing units other than those of subheading 8471.41 or 8471.49," which may hold storage, input or output units in the same housing. Those imports rose to $83.9 billion from $43.6 billion, 73.3% of the heading and 81% of its increase. Storage units (8471.70) rose 112% to $7.3 billion, and portable machines of 10 kg or less (8471.30) 25% to $15.8 billion.

Mexico shipped $50.0 billion, up 126% from $22.2 billion, and $45.4 billion of that was 8471.50. Its share rose 9.4 percentage points to 43.7%, above the previous high of 40.8% in the three months to March 2025. July alone set a record at $21.5 billion, 49.2% of the month's total. As recently as December–February, Taiwan led with 44.3% against Mexico's 31.2%.

Taiwan's shipments rose 30% to $32.1 billion, but its share fell to 28.1% from 38.3%. Thailand's rose 181% to $11.5 billion, and its 8471.50 shipments rose to $6.8 billion from $675 million. Vietnam's rose 30% to $13.0 billion, mostly portable machines ($10.7 billion).

Parts: memory modules from Vietnam, South Korea and Malaysia

HS 8473 imports rose 141% to $43.2 billion in May–July, and nearly all of it was 8473.30, parts and accessories for the machines of heading 8471. The largest line, HTS 8473.30.11.40, "memory modules suitable for use solely or principally with machines of heading 8471," rose to $28.1 billion from $5.7 billion. Vietnam shipped $10.0 billion of those, South Korea $8.6 billion and Malaysia $5.9 billion.

Vietnam's HS 8473 shipments rose 393% to $12.4 billion, a record 28.8% share (the previous high was 26.7%). South Korea's rose 279% to $8.7 billion and Malaysia's 432% to $6.2 billion; July was a record month for Vietnam and South Korea. Taiwan's rose 16% to $11.2 billion, but its share fell from 54.1% to 26.0%, the lowest since the three months to March 2021. Its main line, other printed circuit assemblies (8473.30.11.80), held at $8.7 billion. Mexico's parts shipments fell 24% to $499 million: its gain was in whole machines.

China fell away before this year's increase

China supplied 38.4% of U.S. imports under HS 8471 in 2023 and 25.6% in 2024, but 1.9% in May–July 2026, against 2.1% a year earlier. Monthly shipments from China fell from $3.6 billion in January 2025 to $174 million in February 2026, and were $758 million in July. The duty those goods paid rose from 0.85% in January 2025 to 14.85% in March 2025, after IEEPA duties on Chinese goods took effect on Feb. 4, 2025. It fell to 6.75% in March 2026, after the IEEPA duties stopped being collected on Feb. 24. The data do not show why shipments fell.

What these goods pay today

HTS 8471.50.01.50, the ten-digit line that carried $83.9 billion of the May–July imports, has a general (MFN) rate of Free. As of Sept. 29, 2026, the import.tax tariff lookup finds no unconditional chapter 99 duty on it (chapter 99 is the part of the schedule that holds temporary duties) from Mexico, Taiwan or Vietnam. From China it pays 25% under Section 301 heading 9903.88.03. Three measures sit around that zero:

• Conditional. Heading 9903.79.01, a 25% Section 232 duty, reaches only entries that meet the technical parameters for semiconductor articles in U.S. note 39. Proclamation 11002 of Jan. 14, 2026 imposed it on "certain advanced computing chips and certain derivative products described in the Annex to this proclamation," and lists uses to which the rate does not apply. The lookup lists it as conditional on the facts of each entry and leaves it out of the total.
• Excepted. The Section 301 forced-labor duties that took effect July 24, 2026 are 10% for Mexico (9903.05.55) and Taiwan (9903.05.76) and 12.5% for Vietnam (9903.05.84) and China (9903.05.31). They do not reach this line. U.S. note 52(b), added by the USTR notice, says that under heading 9903.05.86 those duties "shall not apply to articles that are classifiable in the following provisions of the HTSUS." The lookup finds all 28 HS 8471 lines and the 8473.30 parts lines on that list. The duty does apply to the small HS 8473 lines for calculator, cash-register and other office-machine parts.
• Not in force. IEEPA duties have not been collected since Feb. 24, 2026 (Executive Order 14389), and the 10% Section 122 surcharge, from which these lines were exempt, expired July 24, 2026.

The main parts line, 8473.30.11.40 from Vietnam, reads the same: Free, with the Section 232 heading conditional and the forced-labor duty excepted.

Duty actually paid in May–July, in the table above, matches. Goods from China paid 2.31%, against 23.11% a year earlier. Most of what China ships now is portable machines (8471.30, $1.6 billion), which paid 0.15%; its $66 million of digital processing units paid 24.79%.

What to watch

• Oct. 6, 2026: Census releases August trade data at 8:30 a.m. Eastern (release schedule).
• Nov. 9, 2026: the last day of the Section 301 exclusions under 9903.88.69, which the lookup matches to particular Chinese products under three 8473.30 lines, including memory modules.