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Trump promises new tariffs and warns exemption on Chinese electronics will be short-lived
Despite the temporary suspension of tariffs on products like smartphones and laptops, the former U.S. president said no company would be “getting off the hook”
The recent exemption from tariffs on smartphones, laptops, and other electronics imported from China will be short-lived, according to U.S. officials. Former President Donald Trump stated that no one would be “getting off the hook” from tariff measures.
“There was no Tariff ‘exception’,” Trump said in a social media post on Sunday. “These products are subject to the existing 20% Fentanyl Tariffs, and they are just moving to a different Tariff ‘bucket’.”
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump also announced his intention to launch a national security trade investigation into the semiconductor sector and the entire electronics supply chain.
“We will not be held hostage by other countries, especially hostile trading nations like China,” he added.
On Friday, the White House had announced the temporary exclusion of some electronic products from the steep reciprocal tariffs on China.
China’s Ministry of Commerce responded by saying the exemption represented “a small step by the U.S. toward correcting its erroneous unilateral practice of ‘reciprocal tariffs’” and urged Washington to eliminate the whole tariff regime.
Zhang Li, president of the China Center for Information Industry Development, told state-run China Daily that the exemptions showed “how important China is to major U.S. tech companies that rely heavily on the country for manufacturing and innovation.”
Despite the temporary relief, Trump’s Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, stated on Sunday that critical technology products from China, along with semiconductors, will face new tariffs within the next two months.
