The lifting of higher tariffs on smartphones, laptops, PC components and other electronics announced Friday was temporary because the White House plans to include them in the category of semiconductors that will be subject to a separate levy, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday on ABC News’ “This Week.”
«All of these products will fall under the category of semiconductors, and they will have a special type of tariff to ensure that the production of these products is brought back (to the U.S.),” Lutnick said. “We can’t rely on China for the fundamental goods that we need.”
As Bloomberg noted, the secretary’s comments suggest that the exemptions, published in a U.S. Customs and Border Protection document Friday evening, were made to eventually move the products into a different category for the duties that U.S. President Donald Trump has long promised for semiconductors, rather than to cut tariffs indefinitely.
But the lifting of the tariffs was a temporary victory for Apple and other companies that rely on Chinese manufacturing. The Chinese government welcomed the move and urged Trump to continue down that path.
«”This is a small step by the US to correct its wrongful actions of imposing unilateral ‘reciprocal tariffs,'” China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement posted on its official WeChat account on Sunday. It called on the US to “take a big step to completely reverse its wrongful actions and return to the right track of resolving differences through equal dialogue based on mutual respect.”
But Lutnick and other Trump administration officials said Sunday that it was just a pause before moving on to other tariffs, which would still likely be lower than the 125% rate on China that Trump set last week.
The White House has long said it will not apply country-by-country tariffs — 125% for China and 10% for most other countries — to sectors that receive their own special duties. Trump has already imposed sectoral tariffs on steel, aluminum, and automobiles, and has imposed tariffs on auto parts and copper. He has also signaled plans to impose more tariffs on semiconductor chips, pharmaceuticals, lumber, and possibly critical minerals.
Lutnik said the semiconductor tariffs would go into effect in a month or two. He also said a notice on the semiconductors would be published in the federal register this week, but he did not provide details.
It is not yet clear what tariff the Trump administration will impose on semiconductors; it is 25% for other industries.