Trump Commerce chief fuels tariff confusion, saying exemptions for phones, computers and other electronics are not permanent

Trump Commerce chief fuels tariff confusion, saying exemptions for phones, computers and other electronics are not permanent


U.S. Commerce Secretary nominee Howard Lutnick speaks inside the Capital One arena on the inauguration day of Donald Trump’s second presidential term, in Washington, U.S., January 20, 2025. 

Mike Segar | Reuters

President Donald Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick suggested Sunday that the reciprocal tariff exemptions for some electronics may be short-lived, and said separate tariffs for these products are “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,” Lutnick said Sunday on ABC News’ This Week.

Lutnick’s comments throw cold water on hopes that popular tech products made in China, such as computers, laptops, smartphones, and flat-panel TVs, would be spared from Trump’s 145% reciprocal tariffs — duties that raise prices for U.S. importers and are generally passed on to consumers.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection late Friday evening announced exemptions for smartphones, computers, and other tech devices and components from his reciprocal tariffs.

Lutnick on Sunday emphasized that the U.S. “can’t be beholden and rely upon foreign countries for fundamental things that we need.”

“So this is not like a permanent sort of exemption. [Trump’s] just clarifying that these are not available to be negotiated away by countries,” he said Sunday.

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

Read more CNBC politics coverage

The reciprocal tariff exemptions had brought a sigh of relief, at least for now, for tech companies, including Apple, which manufactures many of its products in China.

But Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey said the confusion sowed by the Trump administration’s reversal late Friday on reciprocal tariffs on some electronics from China — and his sudden call on Wednesday for a 90-day pause in enforcing new tariffs on other countries — is harmful to the U.S.

“President Trump now has a crisis in credibility,” he said in an interview Sunday on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.” “We’re hearing from around the world. People just don’t know if they can trust him.”



Source

Trump backs tax hike on the rich, but says GOP ‘probably’ shouldn’t do it
Politics

Trump backs tax hike on the rich, but says GOP ‘probably’ shouldn’t do it

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a swearing-in ceremony of Special Envoy Steve Witkoff in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 6, 2025. Kent Nishimura | Reuters President Donald Trump on Friday tepidly backed the idea of raising taxes on the richest Americans, while openly wrestling with the politics […]

Read More
Retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter dies at 85
Politics

Retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter dies at 85

Portrait de David Hackett Souter. Jeffrey Markowitz | Sygma | Getty Images Retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter died Thursday at his home in New Hampshire, the court said in a statement. He was 85 years old. Souter, who was appointed to the high court in 1990 by his fellow Republican, President George H.W. Bush, […]

Read More
Trump says it is ‘such an honor’ that Vatican elected first U.S. pope
Politics

Trump says it is ‘such an honor’ that Vatican elected first U.S. pope

President Donald Trump congratulated Robert Francis Prevost after his election as pope Thursday, making him the first American-born pontiff in the history of the Roman Catholic Church. Prevost, 69, of Chicago, will be known as Pope Leo XIV. “It is such an honor to realize that he is the first American Pope,” Trump wrote on […]

Read More