Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced on Sunday that the Trump administration’s tariff exemption for smartphones, computers, and other devices is only temporary, and that electronics will eventually be included in the semiconductor tariffs set to start in the coming months.
The exemption was revealed in a U.S. Customs and Border Protection notice Friday night, listing 20 technology products that are excluded from the 145 percent tariffs on China and baseline 10 percent tariffs on all foreign imports. It is set to benefit American tech companies, like Apple and Nvidia.
The move came two days after President Donald Trump issued a 90-day pause on his higher reciprocal tariffs, giving more than 75 countries time to negotiate trade deals with the U.S.
Lutnick explained on national television that electronic devices will not be permanently exempted from Trump’s tariffs.
“We can’t be beholden and rely upon foreign countries for fundamental things that we need,” he said on ABC News program This Week on Sunday morning, adding Trump is “clarifying that these are not available to be negotiated away by countries.”
The president is expected to roll out a preliminary plan for separate tariffs on semiconductor chips come Monday. Lutnick said those tariffs will be “coming in probably a month or two.”
“All those products are going to come under semiconductors, and they’re going to have a special focus type of tariff to make sure that those products get reshored,” the secretary continued. “We need to have semiconductors, we need to have chips, and 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 operate for us.”
Semiconductor chips are primarily made in Taiwan and South Korea, though China is also another production source. Facing a total 145 percent tariff on its goods entering the U.S., China raised its trade taxes on U.S. imports to 125 percent in return. Trump’s 90-day tariff pause excludes China from the negotiating table.
The administration has taken a strong stance against China, justifying its tariffs on the basis that the foreign nation has been an unfair trading partner for years. Beijing has threatened to fight a trade war against the U.S. if it comes to that.
The Chinese government’s Ministry of Commerce responded on Sunday to the tariff exemption on a range of electronics, calling the reprieve a “small step” forward for the U.S. in “correcting its wrong practice of unilateral ‘reciprocal tariffs.'”
China also called on the U.S. to “completely cancel” its sweeping tariffs and engage in “equal dialogue” with its trading partner.
Beyond the semiconductor tariffs, Trump is expected to announce a plan soon for tariffs on pharmaceuticals imported from overseas.