United States President Donald Trump has said that no one is “getting off the hook” on trade after his administration appeared to dial down pressure on China by issuing a notice exempting certain high-tech products from his “reciprocal” tariffs.
In the latest twist in the Trump administration’s trade war on Sunday, the president said that there were no exceptions to the tariffs, as smartphones, laptops and other products were still subject to an existing 20 percent duty and the items were being moved to a different tariff “bucket”.
“We will not be held hostage by other Countries, especially hostile trading Nations like China,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.
Speaking to reporters on board Air Force One later on Sunday, Trump said he would announce new tariffs on semiconductors over the next week.
“The tariffs will be in place in the not distant future,” Trump said, adding that there would be flexibility for some companies in the sector.
US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said earlier that the reprieve for high-tech products, many of which are manufactured in China, would be temporary and that semiconductor tariffs would be in place within weeks.
“So what [Trump is] doing is he’s saying they’re [high-tech products] 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,” Lutnick told ABC News.
Tit-for-tat trade salvoes between the US and China have seen Washington raise import taxes on Chinese goods to 145 percent and Beijing retaliate with a 125 percent duty on US imports.
Beijing initially welcomed Washington’s exemptions, describing them as a “small step” in the right direction, while calling on the Trump administration to “completely cancel” the tariffs.
In a notice issued on Friday, US Customs and Border Protection listed 20 broadly defined categories of high-tech products not subject to the “reciprocal” tariffs, including semiconductors, flat panel displays and computers.
“What is new is the apparent classification of goods as ‘semiconductors’. The list released on Friday night is much broader than what anyone else would call semiconductor,” Deborah Elms, the head of trade policy at the Hinrich Foundation in Singapore, told Al Jazeera.
Trump’s latest comments appeared to pour cold water on hopes of a de-escalation in tensions between the world’s two largest economies.
The remarks also added to widespread confusion about Trump’s trade policies, which have cast a pall of uncertainty over businesses and unnerved financial markets.
“The mass confusion created by this constant news flow out of the White House is dizzying for the industry and investors and creating massive uncertainty and chaos for companies trying to plan their supply chain, inventory and demand,” Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives wrote in a note to investors on Sunday.
The US president has sent global stock markets on a rollercoaster ride in recent weeks with a dizzying series of back-and-forth announcements on tariffs.
After his April 2 announcement of sweeping tariffs on dozens of trade partners sent stock markets into freefall, Trump last week abruptly announced a 90-day pause on most of the measures.
The reprieve did not include China, the US’s third-largest trade partner, which was instead hit with even higher tariffs.
The White House has said that Trump remains optimistic about securing a trade deal with China, although administration officials have made it clear they expect Beijing to reach out first.
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