The US Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, said Sunday that the tariff exemption for ‘smartphones’, various components of computer and semiconductors – announced in recent hours – is temporary, because they will have a specific “soon” tax.
“All these products will be included in the semiconductor category and will have a specific tariff (…) will be included in semiconductor tariffs, which will probably enter into force in one or two months. So these will arrive soon,” Lutnick said this Sunday in an interview with the ABC News chain.
This position contrasts with the notice issued Friday night by the Office of Customs and Border Protection of the United States (CBP, in English) in which the ‘smartphones’, components of computers and semiconduting chips were excluded, between a list of other electronic devices, of those known as “reciprocal tariffs.”
This exemption, according to CBP, applies to those products imported to the US and that have entered the North American country or leave the stores in their places of origin from April 5.
The US president, Donald Trump, already assured yesterday that on Monday he will talk about the possible application of semiconductor tariffs in the midst of the commercial war that he maintains with China and given the growing doubts about his erratic strategy in this field.
“We need semiconductors, chips and flat screens; we need these products to be manufactured in the United States. We cannot depend on Southeast Asia (…) Therefore, this is not a permanent exemption (…) is a matter of national security that are manufactured in the United States,” Lutnick expanded this Sunday.
The week that concludes today, Trump postponed the application of “reciprocal tariffs” 90 days to negotiate with the countries involved, but set a 10 % base tax on imports.
This helm, however, was not applied to China, to which Trump has increased these levies to 125 %, plus another 20 % tax that already weighed against him (145 % in total), causing a proportional response of Beijing and the fear of a large -scale commercial war.