US President Donald Trump on Thursday said his administration would impose tariffs on semiconductor imports from companies not shifting production to the US, speaking ahead of a dinner with major technology company CEOs.
Since returning to office in January, Trump’s threat of tariffs has alienated trading partners, stirred volatility in financial markets and fueled global economic uncertainty.
“Yeah, I have discussed it with the people here. Chips and semiconductors — we will be putting tariffs on companies that aren’t coming in. We will be putting a tariff very shortly,” Trump said ahead of a dinner with major tech company CEOs.
Photo: Bloomberg
“We will be putting a very substantial tariff, not that high, but fairly substantial tariff with the understanding that if they come into the country, if they are coming in, building, planning to come in, there will not be a tariff,” Trump told reporters, without giving an exact time or rate.
Trump has made tariffs a pillar of US foreign policy, using them to exert political pressure and renegotiate trade deals, and extract concessions from countries and companies that export goods to the US.
“If they are not coming in, there is a tariff,” Trump said in his comments on semiconductors.
“Like, I would say [Apple CEO] Tim Cook would be in pretty good shape,” he added, as Cook sat across the table.
IPhone maker Apple recently raised its total domestic investment commitment in the US to US$600 billion over the next four years as tech leaders have warmed up to Trump in his second term.
Trump last month said that the US would impose a tariff of about 100 percent on imports of semiconductors, but it would not apply to companies that are manufacturing in the US or have committed to do so.
Taiwanese chip giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have announced investments in chip manufacturing in the US.
Trump has faced legal pushback in his use of tariffs. His administration has asked the US Supreme Court to swiftly hear a bid to preserve his sweeping tariffs pursued under a 1977 law meant for emergencies after a lower court invalidated most of the levies that have been central to his economic and trade agenda.
MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it plans to double investment in data center-related technologies, including advanced packaging and high-speed interconnect technologies, to broaden the new business’ customer and service portfolios. The chip designer is redirecting its resources to data centers, mainly designing application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC) with artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities for cloud service providers. The data center business is forecast to lead growth in the next three years and become the company’s second-biggest revenue source, replacing chips used in smart devices, MediaTek president Joe Chen (陳冠州) told a media event in Taipei. “Three or four years
Until US President Donald Trump’s return a year ago, when the EU talked about cutting economic dependency on foreign powers — it was understood to mean China, but now Brussels has US tech in its sights. As Trump ramps up his threats — from strong-arming Europe on trade to pushing to seize Greenland — concern has grown that the unpredictable leader could, should he so wish, plunge the bloc into digital darkness. Since Trump’s Greenland climbdown, top officials have stepped up warnings that the EU is dangerously exposed to geopolitical shocks and must work toward strategic independence — in defense, energy and
Motorists ride past a mural along a street in Varanasi, India, yesterday.
For the second year in a row, a Brazilian movie has wowed international audiences and critics, securing multiple Oscar nominations and drawing fresh interest in the Latin American giant’s film industry. Experts say the success of The Secret Agent, which has won four Oscar nominations, a year after I Am Still Here won Brazil its first Oscar, is no fluke, with a bit of a push from the country’s political climate. “This is neither a coincidence nor a miracle. It is the result of a lot of work, consistent policies, and, of course, talent,” Ilda Santiago, director of the Rio International Film
RSS