US eyes separate levy on exempted electronics: | Australian Markets

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick says smartphones, computer systems and another electronics, simply exempted from steep tariffs on imports from China, will face separate new duties together with semiconductors within the subsequent two months.

Lutnick’s feedback on US broadcaster ABC flagging the approaching levies on important technology merchandise mark the latest twist in US President Donald Trump’s tariff plans which have roiled financial markets since they have been introduced on what he branded “Liberation Day” on April 2.

Late on Friday Trump’s administration granted exclusions from the steep tariffs on smartphones and a set of different electronics merchandise, a transfer seen as a massive break for technology corporations reminiscent of Apple and Dell Technologies that rely on imports from China.

Lutnick stated Trump would enact “a special focus-type of tariff” on smartphones, computer systems and different electronics merchandise in a month or two, alongside sectoral tariffs focusing on semiconductors and prescribed drugs.

He stated these new levies would fall exterior Trump’s so-called “reciprocal tariffs” beneath which levies on Chinese imports climbed to 125 per cent this week.

“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,” Lutnick stated within the interview on ABC, predicting that the levies would deliver manufacturing of these merchandise to the United States.

“These are things that are national security, that we need to be made in America.”

With his feedback, Lutnick appeared to transcend what was communicated on Saturday, when a White official informed media that Trump would launch a new national security trade investigation into semiconductors quickly that would result in different new tariffs.

China elevated its own tariffs on US imports to 125 per cent on Friday, putting in opposition to Trump’s tariffs.

Chinese officers stated on Sunday that they have been evaluating the consequences of the exclusions for the technology merchandise applied late on Friday.

“The bell on a tiger’s neck can only be untied by the person who tied it,” China’s ministry of commerce stated.

Billionaire investor Bill Ackman, who endorsed Trump’s run for president however who has criticised the tariffs, on Sunday known as on him to pause the broad and steep reciprocal tariffs on China for 3 months, as he did for many international locations final week.

By launching the tariffs on April 2nd, President @actualDonaldTrump has enabled our trading companions to expertise the visceral impression of the tariffs on their markets, corporations, and residents, and he has proven that he’s ready to do what is important to deal with unfair trading…— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) April 13, 2025

“If President Trump were to pause the China tariffs for 90 days and reduce them temporarily to 10 per cent, he would achieve the same objective in causing US businesses to relocate their supply chains from China without the disruption and risk to these businesses in the short term, and he would have time to negotiate a deal with China,” Ackman wrote on X.

US Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, criticised the latest revision to Trump’s tariff plan, which economists have warned may dent financial growth and fuel inflation.

“There is no tariff policy – only chaos and corruption” Warren stated on ABC’s This Week.

In a discover to shippers late on Friday, the US Customs and Border Protection company printed a checklist of tariff codes excluded from the import taxes.

It featured 20 product classes, together with computer systems, laptops, disc drives, semiconductor gadgets, reminiscence chips and flat panel shows.

For the Chinese imports, the exclusion of the tech merchandise applies solely to Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which reached 125 per cent this week.

Trump’s prior 20 per cent duties on all Chinese imports that he stated have been associated to the fentanyl disaster stay in place.

In an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro stated that the United States has opened an invitation to China to barter however criticised its connection to the deadly fentanyl provide chain and didn’t embody them on a checklist of seven entities – the United Kingdom, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and Israel – with which he stated the administration was in talks.

“They’re just lining up outside the door of Jamieson Greer,” Navarro stated, referring to the US trade consultant.