NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tariff exemptions announced Friday on electronics like smartphones and laptops are only a temporary reprieve until the Trump administration develops a new tariff approach specific to the semiconductor industry, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday.
White House officials, including President Donald Trump himself, spent Sunday downplaying the significance of exemptions that lessen but won't eliminate the effect of U.S. tariffs on imports of popular consumer devices and their key components.
''They're exempt from the reciprocal tariffs but they're included in the semiconductor tariffs, which are coming in probably a month or two,'' Lutnick told ABC's ''This Week'' on Sunday.
Trump added to the confusion hours later, declaring on social media that there was no ''exception'' at all because the goods are ''just moving to a different" bucket and will still face a 20% tariff as part of his administration's move to punish China for its role in fentanyl trafficking.
The Trump administration late Friday had said it would exclude electronics from broader so-called reciprocal tariffs, a move that could help keep the prices down for phones and other consumer products that aren't usually made in the U.S.
China's commerce ministry in a Sunday statement welcomed the change as a small step even as it called for the U.S. to completely cancel the rest of its tariffs.
Sparing electronics was expected to benefit big tech companies like Apple and Samsung and chip makers like Nvidia, though the uncertainty of future tariffs may rein in an anticipated tech stock rally on Monday.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said items like smartphones, laptops, hard drives, flat-panel monitors and some chips would qualify for the exemption. Machines used to make semiconductors are excluded too. That means they won't be subject to most of the tariffs levied on China or the 10% baseline tariffs elsewhere.
