Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that President Donald Trump’s tariff exemptions on technology products like phones, computers and chips were temporary.
Partial transcript as follows:
KARL: Let’s start with that news late Friday that this exemption on electronics, smartphones, laptop computers and the like. What’s the thinking? Why the exemption?
LUTNICK: Well, if you remember, over the past couple of months President Trump has called out pharmaceuticals and semiconductors and autos. He called them sector tariffs. And those are not available for negotiation. They are just going to be part of making sure we reshore the core national security items that need to be made in this country. We need to make medicine in this country. We learned it during Covid. We need to make it in this country. We need to make semiconductors. Because if we don’t own semiconductors here, remember, all – virtually all semiconductors are made now in Taiwan and they’re finished in China. It’s important that we reshore them.
And so the president is going to come out with his policies on semiconductors and pharmaceuticals. They’re going to be outside the reciprocal tariffs. And he was just making sure everyone understood that all of these products are outside the reciprocal tariffs and they are going to have their own separate way of being considered.
KARL: But – but – but, wait a minute, I’m – I’m asking you about the exemption, not about – I mean the – the notice that went out Friday night saying that electronics, a wide range of electronics, including smartphones, including components used to make microchips, that these are now exempt from the reciprocal tariffs. Why that move?
LUTNICK: Well, remember, those products are going to be part of the semiconductor sectoral tariffs which are coming. So, you’re going to see this week there will be a register in the federal registry. There will be a notice put out. That is different types of work.
So, we’re going to do that. We did that in autos. The president is going to do it for pharmaceuticals. I think he’s going to do it for semiconductors. So, all those products are going to come under semiconductors, and they’re going to have a special focus-type of tariff to make sure that those products get reshored.
We need to have semiconductors, we need to have chips, and we need to have flat panels. We need to have these things made in America. We can’t be reliant on Southeast Asia for all of the things that operate for us.
So, what he’s doing is 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. So, these are coming soon. You shouldn’t think this is really outside of it. Really think of it as being included in the semiconductor space. Much like pharmaceuticals —
KARL: Okay, so —
LUTNICK: — they require special attention, and the president is on it.
KARL: So — so you’re saying that the big tariffs on things like smartphones and laptops, iPhones — all those iPhones built in China — that those tariffs are temporarily off, but they’re going to be coming right back on in another form in a month or so? Or what — what are you saying?
LUTNICK: Correct, that — that’s right. That’s right. Semiconductors and pharmaceuticals will have a tariff model in order to encourage them to reshore, to be built in America. We need our medicines, and we need semiconductors and our electronics to be built in America.
We can’t be the holden and rely upon foreign countries for fundamental things that we need. We can’t be relying on China for fundamental things that we need.
Our medicines and our semiconductors need to be built in America. Donald Trump is on it. He’s calling that out.
So, you should understand these are included in the semiconductor tariffs that are coming and the pharmaceuticals are coming. Those two areas are coming in the next month or two.
So, this is not like a permanent sort of exemption. He’s just clarifying that these are not available to be negotiated away by countries. These are things that are qnational security, that we need to be made in America.
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