US President Donald Trump
Nathan Howard | Reuters
President Donald Trump and his top trade officials on Sunday added confusion over his administration’s tariff plans, including a newly announced exemption from mutual tariffs on electronic products such as mobile phones, computers and semiconductors.
Trump and his aides have suggested that the exemption, which erased a 145% tariff on many Chinese electronic devices and components, will be partially or completely reversed in the coming weeks. Another 20% tariff on all Chinese products is still in effect.
The exemption was first revealed in technical guidance issued late Friday night. US Customs and Border Securityand was confirmed by the White House on Saturday.
But Trump on Sunday afternoon raised doubts about the exemption period. appleIPHONE and most other products are manufactured in China.
No one is getting “from the hook” because of unfair trade balances and the financial tariff barriers that other countries use against us. Trump I wrote it In a social media post.
“There were no exceptions to the ‘duty’ announced on Friday. These products are subject to existing 20% fentanyl tariffs and are simply moving to another tariff “bucket,” Trump said. “The fake news knows this but refuses to report it. We look at the entire semiconductor and electronics supply chain in future national security tariff investigations.”
Earlier on Sunday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick suggested the exemption was temporary, saying individual tariffs on electronic products “will come soon.”
“They are exempt from mutual tariffs, but they are included in semiconductor tariffs that will probably come in one or two months,” Lutnick said ABC News ‘” again this week.
“So this is not something like a permanent exemption. [Trump’s] It just makes it clear that these cannot be negotiated by the state,” he said.
Lutnick added: “These are the national security that needs to be made in America.”
Lutnick’s comments and Trump’s social media throw cold water in hopes that popular tech products made in China, such as computers, laptops, smartphones, flat panel televisions, and other likes to be spared Trump’s 145% mutual tariffs, raise prices for US importers, and generally hand over to consumers.
They also add more uncertainty about Trump’s tariff policies, which have changed repeatedly since he took office. Democrats on Sunday said the change was causing “disturbance” and a crisis of reliability for Trump.
US trade representative Jamieson Greer said Sunday was “really no exception” to clarify why the exemption was issued.
“What happened is that this type of supply chain has moved from the tariff regime for global tariffs, mutual tariffs and into the national security tariff regime, Greer said CBS News “facing the people.”
Mutual tariff exemptions first sighed major tech companies in relief. apple And I like chip makers nvidia.
But New Jersey Democrat Sen. Corey Booker said the upheavals of the Trump administration’s reversal of mutual tariffs on several electronic devices from China and his sudden call to Wednesday for a 90-day suspension to enforce new tariffs on other countries are harmful to the United States.
“President Trump is currently at risk of credibility,” he said in an interview with NBC News “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “We’ve heard from all over the world. People just don’t know if they can trust him.”
D-Mass. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of the company warned that trade disruptions would block investment in the US “what we have now is chaos,” she said Sunday in CNN’s “coalition status.”
“Investors won’t invest in the US when Donald Trump plays a green light of red light at tariffs.”
