Washington – US President Donald Trump said he would announce the tariff level for semiconductors imported next week, adding that he would have flexibility with some companies in the sector.
The president’s promise means that the exclusion of intelligent phones and computers from his reciprocal tariffs in China is likely to be short -lived as Trump seeks to restore trade in the semiconductor sector.
“We wanted to uncompoll it from many other companies because we want to make chips and semiconductors and other things in our country,” Trump told reporters on board Air Force One while he traveled to Washington from his wealth at West Palm Beach.
Trump refused to say if some products such as intelligent phones can still end up excluding, but added: “You have to show a certain flexibility. No one should be so rigid.”
Earlier in the day, Trump announced an investigation by national security trade in the semiconductor sector.
“We are taking a look at the semiconductors and the entire electronic supply chain in future national security investigations,” he posted on social media.
The White House had announced exceptions from the sloping reciprocal tariffs on Friday, creating some hope that the technology industry can escape by being involved in the escalation conflict between the two nations and that daily consumer products such as phones and laptops will remain affordable.
However, Trump’s Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, earlier on Sunday made it clear that critical technology products from China would face special new tasks along with semiconductors within the next two months.
Trump’s return fees last week triggered the wildest oscillations in Wall Street since the 2020 Covid Pandemia. The poor Benchmark & 500 (.SPX) standard index has decreased more than 10% since Trump took office on January 20th.
Lutnick said Trump will approve “a particular focus of tariff concentration” on smartphones, computers and other electronic products in a month or two, along with the sector tariffs aimed at semiconductors and pharmaceuticals. The new tasks would fall out of the so -called Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, under which taxes on Chinese imports went up to 125% last week, he said.
“He is saying they are excluded from reciprocal tariffs, but they are included in the semiconductor tariffs, which are probably coming a month or two,” Lutnick said in an ABC “this week,” predicting that taxes would bring about the production of those products in the United States.
Beijing increased its US import fees to 125% on Friday in response. On Sunday, before Lutnick’s comments, China said she was appreciating the impact of exceptions to technology products implemented late on Friday.
“The bell on the neck of a tiger can only be connected by the person who tied it,” China’s Ministry of Trade said.
Billionaire Bill Ackman, who approved Trump’s candidacy for president but who criticized the tariffs, on Sunday called on him to stop the wide and sloping reciprocal tariffs in China for three months, as Trump did for most countries last week.
If Trump stopped Chinese tariffs for 90 days and trimmed them to 10% temporarily, “he would achieve the same goal in causing US businesses to move their supply chains from China without interruption and danger,” Ackman wrote to X.
‘Changes every day’
Sven Henrich, the founder and strategist of the main market for Northantrader, was harshly critical of how the tariff issue on Sunday was being dealt with.
“Feeling Control: The biggest gathering of the year would come on the day Lutnick is resting,” Henrich wrote on X. “I suggest that the administration figure who controls the message, whatever it changes every day. American business cannot plan or invest with constant back and forth.”
US Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, criticized the latest review of Trump’s tariff plan, which economists have warned may undermine economic growth and fuel inflation.
“There is no tariff policy – only chaos and corruption,” Warren said in ABC this week, speaking before Trump’s latest post on social media.
In a notice to carriers late on Friday, the US Customs and Border Protection Agency published a list of tariff codes exempt from import taxes. It presented 20 categories of products, including computers, laptops, disk discs, semiconductor equipment, memory chips and flat panel screens.
In an interview for the NBC “press”, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said KBA has opened an invitation to China to negotiate, but he criticized China’s connection with the deadly fentanyl supply chain and did not include it in a list of the seven entities – the United Kingdom, the UK and India, India, Israel – with whom he said the administration was in talks.
Trade representative Jamieson Greer said in the CBS Face Nation that there were no plans yet for Trump to speak to Chinese President Xi Jinping with tariffs, accusing China of creating trade friction by responding with their taxes. But he expressed hopes for some non-Kinez agreements.
“My goal is to get significant deals 90 days ago, and I think we’ll be there with some places in the coming weeks,” Greer said.
Ray Dalio, the founder of the billionaire of the world’s largest defense fund, told NBC’s “press meeting” that he was concerned about the United States slipping into recession, or worse as a result of tariffs.
“For now we are in a decision -making point and very close to a recession,” Dalio said on Sunday. “And I’m worried about something worse than a recession if this is not treated well.”
Reporting from Doina Chiacu, Washington and Nathan Layne in Connecticut and Jeff Mason in Florida; Additional reporting by Bo Erickson, Andrew Goudsward and Andrea Shalal. Writing by James Olifant. Editing by Scott Malone, Mark Porter, Leslie Adler and Lincoln Holiday
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