U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he would be announcing tariffs on imported semiconductors over the next week, adding that the U.S. will offer flexibility for some companies in the sector. The announcement marks a shift in the reciprocal tariff policy from the recently excluded smartphones and computers, which offered short-lived relief to China.
“We wanted to uncomplicate it from a lot of other companies, because we want to make our chips and semiconductors and other things in our country,” Trump told reporters.
National security trade probe into semiconductors announced
Earlier in the day, Trump announced a national security trade probe into the semiconductor sector. “We are taking a look at Semiconductors and the WHOLE ELECTRONICS SUPPLY CHAIN in the upcoming National Security Tariff Investigations,” he posted on social media.
The White House announced the exclusions from steep reciprocal tariffs on Friday, raising hopes among tech investors that consumer products like phones and laptops would remain affordable. However, Trump’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, affirmed on Sunday that technology products from China would face separate new tariffs along with semiconductors in the next two months.
Lutnick added that Trump would enact “a special focus-type of tariff” on smartphones, computers and other electronics products soon, in addition to sectoral tariffs targeting semiconductors and pharmaceuticals. The new duties would not fall under Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, under which levies on Chinese imports climbed to 125 percent last week, he said.
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Trump’s tit-for-tat tariffs last week triggered the largest Wall Street decline since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The benchmark S&P 500 index was down more than 10 percent since Trump took office on January 20.
Beijing increased its own tariffs on U.S. imports to 125 percent on Friday in response. On Sunday, China said it was evaluating the impact of the exclusions for the technology products implemented late on Friday. In a statement on Sunday, the Chinese commerce ministry called the move a “small step by the U.S. to correct its wrong practice of unilateral ‘reciprocal tariffs.”
Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te said on Monday that the first phase of tariff talks with the United States went “smoothly,” and the government hopes to take this challenge as an opportunity to promote a new Taiwan-plus-the-United States layout for trade.
The major semiconductor producer was initially set to be hit with a 32 percent tariff until Trump suspended all tariffs on countries excluding China.
