Tariff exemption on electronics temporary, new duties coming soon: US

Smartphones, computers and some other electronics will come under separate tariffs, along with semiconductors that will be imposed in a month or so, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told ABC News on Sunday (April 13).

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This announcement came following the Donald Trump administration’s move to grant exclusions from steep tariffs on such products, which are largely imported from China. It provided a respite to tech giants like Apple that rely on imported products.

Temporary reprieve

However, Lutnick told ABC News that the administration’s decision to exempt a range of electronic devices from tariffs announced on April 2 was only a temporary reprieve. He stressed that they would be subject to “semiconductor tariffs” that would likely come in “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. 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, particularly China, for all of the things that operate for us,” he said.

He said the US has had “soft entrees” through intermediaries with China on tariffs.

“So, what President Trump is doing is he's saying they’re exempt from the reciprocal tariffs, but they’re included in the semiconductor tariffs, which are coming in probably a month or two. So these are coming soon,” he added.

Pharma tariffs on cards

Lutnick also said that pharmaceutical tariffs would also be imposed in a month or two. The commerce secretary stressed that the administration will implement a “tariff model” to encourage the semiconductor and pharmaceutical industries to move their business back to the US.

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“We can't be beholden and rely upon foreign countries for fundamental things that we need. So this is not like a permanent sort of exemption. He's just clarifying that these are not available to be negotiated away by countries. These are things that are national security that we need to be made in America,” he said.

On April 2, Trump announced sweeping reciprocal tariffs on countries, alleging trade imbalances with the US. However, on April 9, barely 13 hours after imposing the duties, he suspended them for most of the countries except China for 90 days.