The US has imposed a 25 percent tariff on imports of certain advanced semiconductors, a key step in an agreement blessed by US President Donald Trump allowing Nvidia Corp to ship Taiwan-made H200 artificial intelligence (AI) processors to China.
Under an order Trump signed on Wednesday, the US government would collect the duty on the chips as they are shipped to the US before final shipment to Chinese customers and other foreign markets.
Nvidia relies on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to produce the chips it designs, including the H200 that was cleared for sale to China by Trump last month.
Photo: AFP
“It’s not the highest level, but it’s a very good level, and China wants them, and other people want them, and we’re going to be making 25 percent of the sale of those chips, basically,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday at a signing ceremony.
The US president is holding off for now on applying tariffs to a broader swath of foreign-made chips, following an investigation under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act that found they harm US national security.
Instead, Trump directed US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to “pursue negotiation of agreements” on imports and to report back in 90 days, according to the proclamation he signed.
Trump might announce new tariffs and an accompanying offset program to incentivize domestic manufacturing “in the near future,” a White House fact sheet said.
The 25 percent tariff applies to “a very narrow category of semiconductors that are an important element of my administration’s AI and technology policies,” the proclamation said.
That includes the H200 and Advanced Micro Devices Inc’s MI325X, according to the fact sheet.
There is an exception for those chips that are imported to support the build-out of the US technology supply chain, it said.
Trump signed the measure a day after the US Bureau of Industry and Security eased its criteria for securing licenses to export H200 chips to China.
That surcharge is a condition Trump required in exchange for allowing Nvidia to sell in China. The US must still take additional actions before Nvidia can send the chips to China, including the approval of export licenses by the bureau. That process can take weeks or months and it is unclear when it would conclude.
Taiwanese products have generally faced a 20 percent tariff upon entering the US, although semiconductors have been spared as US Department of Commerce officials conduct a national security investigation into whether new levies should be applied across the chip sector. Trump has yet to follow on imposing tariffs, as negotiations with Taiwan and major technology companies continue.
Top Taiwanese officials on Wednesday traveled to Washington for talks on finalizing a deal to lower its overall tariff rate to 15 percent and expand TSMC production facilities in the US, people familiar with the matter said.
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