Commerce Secretary Signals New Tariff Strategy
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Wednesday the Trump administration is weighing a new round of import tariffs on semiconductors, potentially raising levies on foreign-made chips to encourage more manufacturing to move to the United States.
Tariff Exemptions Tied to Domestic Investment
Lutnick indicated that the tariffs could be paired with relief measures for companies investing in U.S. manufacturing, following a model similar to what the Trump administration previously applied to the pharmaceutical industry. “That’s the principle for semiconductors: if you make it in the U.S., you get a tariff exemption; if you don’t, you pay the tariff,” Lutnick said. “It’s a very smart approach, and it works.”
Previous Tariffs and Expansion Plans
The Trump administration has already imposed 25% tariffs on some advanced semiconductors and, after completing a trade investigation, ordered additional import duties on those chips in January. The new round of tariffs could extend beyond semiconductors themselves to products containing chips, potentially affecting data center servers and consumer electronics imports.