World War Fee US president Donald Trump appears to have settled his semiconductor tariff strategy.
In January Trump said he planned “25, 50, or even a 100 percent tax” on imported chips. In February he foreshadowed semiconductor tariffs would be “25 percent and higher, and it will go very substantially higher over the course of a year.”
Speaking at the Wednesday announcement of Apple’s expanded investment in US manufacturing, Trump said “We’ll be putting a tariff on of approximately 100 percent on chips and semiconductors.”
Exemptions to the tariffs will be available to chipmakers that even explore stateside manufacturing.
“But if you’re building in the United States of America, there’s no charge,” Trump said.
“Even though you’re building and you’re not producing yet in terms of the big numbers of jobs and all of the things that you’re building. If you’re building, there will be no charge.”
He later said those who have “made a commitment to build” won’t face tariffs.
But if those commitments aren’t met, chipmakers will face retrospective tariffs.
“If for some reason you say you’re building and you don’t build, then we go back and we add it up,” he said. “It accumulates and we charge you at a later date. You have to pay and that’s a guarantee.”
US chipmakers Intel and Micron have already announced new plants in the USA, as have Taiwan’s TSMC and South Korea’s Samsung. Big Japanese players like Kioxia and Renesas have not.
The president didn’t say when he will announce his final policy, and his mention of “approximately100 percent” tariffs leaves room for change. But his remarks didn’t include an explanation of what happens if a chipmaker invests in US manufacturing capacity but still imports other products from overseas. Another omission in the president’s remarks was treatment for products that incorporate semiconductors from multiple sources, an important consideration as modern CPUs and GPUs often employ multiple dies sourced from different nations.
Wednesday’s remarks therefore again leave the semiconductor industry waiting to learn its fate. ®