President Trump defended his move on Friday to exempt some electronic devices from the escalating tariff war with China.
He denied that the announcement amounted to an “exception,” claiming that the product was moved to another tariff “bucket,” suggesting that his administration could still impose different tariffs on the semiconductor industry and the broader electronics supply chain.
“There were no tariffs “exceptions” announced on Friday,” Trump wrote on Sunday in the Truth Social Post. “These products are subject to existing 20% fentanyl tariffs and are simply moving to another tariff “buckets.” ”
“We look at the entire semiconductor and electronics supply chain in future national security tariff investigations,” he added.
US Customs and Border Protection, which collects import obligations, issued updated guidance on Friday, indicating that around 20 products, including smartphones, computers, routers and semiconductor chips, will be excluded from “mutual” tariffs imposed on countries including China.
Trump has suspended the tariff rise in other countries for 90 days, leading to a proportional response from Beijing, which has boosted China’s tariffs to 125%, plus 20%.
It intensified the fears of a massive trade war between the two biggest economies of the world.
In his post on the True Society, Trump denounced the media for reporting Friday’s leadership as softening in his position in China.
“No one has “off-hooked” because of the unfair trade balances and the barriers of financial tariffs that other countries were using against us, not particularly China, not China that deals with us, and not because of the Chinese, which is by far the most important thing! ” Trump wrote in his Truth Social Post.
Trump’s comments coincided with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnic on smartphones and other electronic devices on Sunday.
“This is not like a permanent exemption. [Trump’s] It simply makes it clear that these cannot be negotiated by the state. These are national security and what needs to be made in America,” Rutnick told ABC “this week.”
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Saturday that Trump is still committed to seeing exempt products and components happening domestically.
“President Trump has made it clear that America cannot rely on China to manufacture important technologies,” she said in his direction, with tech companies “hustling US manufacturing as quickly as possible towards land.”
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5247132-trump-defends-tariff-exception/
