US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick has warned that smartphones and other consumer electronics imported to America from China will still face tariffs, dealing a blow to hopes of a reprieve for Big Tech companies such as Apple, Nvidia and Microsoft, Financial Times reported.
Donald Trump’s administration this weekend excluded phones, chipmaking equipment and certain computers from steep “reciprocal” tariffs in what was a significant boost for tech groups whose stocks plunged after the president unleashed a global trade war on “liberation day.”
But speaking on ABC news This Week on Sunday, Lutnick said such products would be re-examined as part of a government probe into semiconductors, which face a separate round of tariffs.
“What he’s doing is he’s saying they’re exempt from the reciprocal tariffs,” Lutnick said, referring to Trump. “But they’re included in the semiconductor tariffs, which are coming in probably a month or two.”
China’s Ministry of Commerce said it was a “small step for the US to correct its wrongful unilateral reciprocal tariffs”, but that it was “evaluating the relevant impact.”
ABC News reported: Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday that the administration’s decision Friday night to exempt a range of electronic device from tariffs implemented earlier this month was only a temporary reprieve, with the secretary announcing that those items would be subject to “semiconductor tariffs” that will likely come in “a month or two.”
“All those products are going to come under the semiconductors, and they’re going to have a special focus type of tariff to make sure those products get reshored. We need to have semiconductors, we need to have chips, we need to have flat panels – we need to have these things made in America. We can’t be reliant on Southeast Asia for all of the things that operation for us.” Lutnick told “The Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl.
The administration’s clarification comes after a U.S. Customs and Border Protection bulletin was posted Friday night outlining key electronics — smartphones, computers, solar cells, flat-panel TV displays and semiconductor-based storage devices, among others — would be exempt from the tariffs announced since April 2.
That means those products would not be subject to steep tariffs on Chinese imports, nor the global 10% tariff rate President Donald Trump had imposed.
TechCrunch reported: The tech industry may not be safe from new tariffs, according to U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
The Trump administration announced Friday evening that consumer electronics such as laptops and smartphones would be exempt from the tariffs it unveiled earlier this month.
Pressed on whether tariffs will mean higher prices for American consumers, Lutnik said, “I don’t think so,” and again emphasized, “I think the idea is that we can manufacture in America.” Others have said that Lutnick’s vision that “the army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in little screws to make iPhones, that kind of thing is going to come to America,” is a fantasy.