World trade
US government: Customs exception for electronics only temporarily
Role before, roll back: hardly freed from tariffs, US President Trump wants to burden smartphones and Co. again soon. This is confirmed by his Minister of Commerce in an interview.
Hardly freed from special tariffs, smartphones, laptops and other important electronics products are directly in the sights of the US government. According to US trade minister Howard Lutnick, the product groups that have just been excluded will soon be used again with additional tariffs. When asked at the broadcaster ABC News as to whether the current exception was only temporary, Lutnick replied: “That’s right.” US media had already speculated that the relief could only be a grace period.
The US government had only recently created relief by initially excluding certain electronics products from already announced special tariffs-also against China. In addition to other US companies, Apple benefits from the relief: Most of the most iPhones and other devices of the group are built in the People’s Republic, even if production in Vietnam and India has been expanded in recent years.
New tariffs “probably in one or two months”
The affected product groups were only excluded from the so -called reciprocal tariffs, the minister now emphasized. In fact, however, they would soon fall under new sectoral tariffs in the area of semiconductors. “We have to have these things made in America,” said Lutnick. “We cannot rely on foreign things that we need.” That is why US President Donald Trump will shorten new tariffs shortly-“which will probably come in one or two months”.
In addition to electronic devices and semiconductors, this also affects pharmaceutical products, said Lutnick. He spoke out earlier with the help of robots to have iPhones manufactured in the United States. Industry experts, however, consider this to be difficult to implement: there is a lack of suppliers and specialists. In addition, production in the United States would be significantly more expensive.
Trump’s course ensures uncertainty
It is another example of Trump’s trading-political zigzag course that places both international markets as well as US companies and consumers into uncertainty. Before the exceptions to electronics were announced, the US President was back to many trading partners and had suspended parts of previously announced special tariffs for 90 days.
At the same time, he tightened the course compared to Beijing: the United States now demands additional taxes of up to 145 percent on imports from China. Beijing, on the other hand, reacted to US products with counter-tariffs of 125 percent.
dpa
Source: Stern
