Trump smartphone tariff pause is temporary − measures 'coming soon,' Lutnick says
"This is not a permanent sort of exemption," Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said of Trump's tariff carve-outs for tech products.
- Separate tariffs on eletronics are "coming soon," Lutnick told ABC's This Week.
- Lutnick said pharmaceutical products would also be hit with their own separate tariff rate.
WASHINGTON − Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday that tariffs on smartphones, computers, and electronics would still come within months after President Donald Trump issued exemptions for the popular goods.
On Friday, the White House issued exemptions for tech products made in China from the extra 125% tariffs Trump trained on all the country's imports to the United States.
In a Sunday interview on ABC This Week, Lutnick said separate tariffs on the products were "coming soon."
"They're exempt from the reciprocal tariffs, but they're included in the semiconductor tariffs, which are coming in probably a month or two," he told host Jonathan Karl.
"This is not a permanent sort of exemption," Lutnick said.
Writing on Truth Social on April 13, Trump said there had been no exemption. "NOBODY is getting 'off the hook'”' for the unfair Trade Balances, and Non Monetary Tariff Barriers, that other Countries have used against us, especially not China which, by far, treats us the worst!" he said.
"There was no Tariff 'exception' announced on Friday," Trump wrote. "These products are subject to the existing 20% Fentanyl Tariffs, and they are just moving to a different Tariff 'bucket.'”
Lutnick said pharmaceutical products would also be hit with their own separate tariff rate, to come within months.
Trump announced on Wednesday he was pausing hefty reciprocal tariffs on countries around the world for 90 days, saying people were "getting a little bit yippy, a little bit afraid." The proposed tariffs had caused a stock market dip and stirred panic that they could trigger a global economic crash.
But he did not relent on China – the United States' third-largest trading partner, after Mexico and Canada. Chinese imports will now be slapped with a total tariff of 145% – Trump's additional tariffs of 125% on top of a previous 20% tariff.
Trump also left in place a 10% universal tariff on imports and said the next day that the global reciprocal tariffs were still to come.
The White House said around 75 countries had reached out to negotiate a deal on tariffs.
Markets surged after Trump announced that the tariffs were paused, but the Dow Jones, a key stock index, plunged 1,000 points amid anxiety over Trump's trade war with China.