He also added that flexibility will also be present when it comes to some of the companies from this sector.
In the President’s pledge, you can also see the exclusion of smartphones and computers from their reciprocal tariffs on China, most likely due to their short-lived nature as Trump is looking forward to resetting the trade in the semiconductor sector.
It is also worth mentioning that Trump mentioned to reporters aboard Air Force One, when traveling back from Washington to his estate in West Palm Beach, that “We wanted to uncomplicate it from a lot of other companies, because we want to make our chips and semiconductors and other things in our country.”
Even more so, earlier that day, Trump also announced a national security probe into the semiconductor sector. Posting on social media, “We are taking a look at Semiconductors and the WHOLE ELECTRONICS SUPPLY CHAIN in the upcoming National Security Tariff Investigations”.
The White House had also announced on Friday the exclusion from steep reciprocal tariffs, triggering some hope surrounding the tech industry and how it might escape being ensnared in the growing conflict that is happening between the two nations, and how consumer products such as phones and laptops would still remain affordable.
Yet, it is also worth noting that Howard Lutnick, Trump’s commerce secretary, made clear that critical tech products from China would face separate new duties along with semiconductors in the next two months.
More so, Trump’s uncertainty about whether or not the tariffs would be changed had caused major swings on Wall Street similar to the ones we had in 2020 when the COVID pandemic hit. The benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 index is also down more than 10% since Trump started his term on January 20.
Howard Lutnick also said in an interview held on ABC’s “This Week”, that “He's saying they're exempt from the reciprocal tariffs, but they're included in the semiconductor tariffs, which are coming in probably a month or two.”
And, as a response, Beijing increased its tariffs on U.S. imports by 125% on Friday. China’s Ministry of Commerce said, "The bell on a tiger's neck can only be untied by the person who tied it," reported Reuters.
It is also worth mentioning that Bill Ackman, one of Trump’s endorsers in the presidential campaign, had written on Sunday on X, referring to Donald Trump that “he would achieve the same objective in causing U.S. businesses to relocate their supply chains from China without the disruption and risk,".
Sven Henrich, the founder and lead market strategist for NorthmanTrader, which harshly critical of how the tariff issue was being handled on Sunday. “Sentiment check: The biggest rally of the year would come on the day Lutnick gets fired," he wrote on X. "I suggest the administration figures out who controls the message, whatever it is, as it changes every day. U.S. businesses can't plan or invest with the constant back and forth."
Trader Representative Jamieson Greer said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that there were no plans for Trump to speak to Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tariffs, accusing China of creating trade friction by responding with levies of its own. Metioning “My goal is to get meaningful deals before 90 days, and I think we're going to be there with several countries in the next few weeks,”.
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