The recent exemption on tariffs for electronics announced by the Trump administration may not be as enduring as many had hoped. During a recent interview on ABC’s This Week, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick provided insights into the temporary nature of these exemptions for items such as smartphones, computers, and other consumer electronics.
Lutnick hinted at the imminent introduction of a new set of duties specifically targeting semiconductors, projected to roll out within the next 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,” Lutnick stated, underscoring the administration’s intent to boost domestic production.
The primary objective of this shift is to bolster the production of chips and flat panels within the United States, thereby reducing reliance on Asian manufacturing sources. This announcement follows a bulletin from U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued late last week, which brought temporary exemptions for essential electronics from the reciprocal tariffs previously laid out by President Donald Trump.
Despite the temporary relief, Lutnick stressed that these same products would soon fall under a more targeted policy concerning “national security” industries, which include semiconductors and pharmaceuticals. He noted, “We need to have chips, and we need to have flat panels — we need to have these things made in America.”
The ramifications of these announcements are already being felt in the market. Following Lutnick’s comments, the price of bitcoin dipped by approximately 1% but later rebounded to the $84,000 mark. The wider cryptocurrency market, represented by the CoinDesk 20 index, also experienced a 1.6% downturn over the past 24 hours.
As industry stakeholders watch the developments, the anticipated tariffs on semiconductors could have significant implications for both manufacturers and consumers alike, highlighting the ongoing transformation in U.S. trade policy.
