The Trump administration announced that various electronic devices, such as smartphones and computers, will be exempt from the tariffs that have been imposed on China.
In a bulletin posted Friday night by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency, it was revealed that certain products would be exempted from tariffs. The tariff exemptions on certain products “apply retroactively to April 5,” according to Axios. The products would be exempt from recently applied tariffs, while other pre-April 2 tariffs would still apply.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt explained in a statement that President Donald Trump “has made it clear” that the United States “cannot rely on China to manufacture critical technologies such as semiconductors, chips, smartphones, and laptops.”
“President Trump has made it clear America cannot rely on China to manufacture critical technologies such as semiconductors, chips, smartphones, and laptops,” Leavitt said in a statement, according to the outlet. “That’s why the President has secured trillions of dollars in U.S. investments from the largest tech companies in the world, including Apple, TSMC, and Nvidia.”
CNBC reported that the guidance from the U.S. CBP “includes exclusions for other electronic devices and components, including semiconductors, solar cells, flat panel TV display, flash drives and memory cards.”
White House deputy press secretary Kush Desai explained that “companies are hustling to onshore their manufacturing in the United States as soon as possible.”
The outlet explained that “the 20 product categories listed in the CBP guidelines are apparently exempt from” the 125 percent tariff Trump had imposed on Chinese imports:
The 20 product categories listed in the CBP guidelines are apparently exempt from the 125% tariff imposed by Trump on Chinese imports and the 10% baseline tariff on imports from other countries. A 20% tariff on all Chinese goods remains in effect.
🚨 Trump administration EXEMPTS list of products from tariffs - smartphones, computers, chip-making equipment
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) April 12, 2025
In a Presidential Memorandum, Trump explained:
In Executive Order 14257 of April 2, 2025 (Regulation Imports With a Reciprocal Tariff to Rectify Trade Practices that Contribute to Large and Persistent Annual United States Goods Trades Deficits), I declared a national emergency arising from conditions reflected in large and persistent annual U.S. goods trade deficits, and imposed additional ad valorem duties that I deemed necessary and appropriate to deal with that unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States, to the national security and economy of the United States.
In Executive Order 14257, I stated that certain goods are not subject to the ad valorem rates of duty under that order. One of those excepted products is “semiconductors.” The subsequent orders issued in connection with Executive Order 14257 — i.e., Executive Order 14259 of April 8, 2025 (Amendment to Reciprocal Tariffs and Updated Duties as Applied to Low-Value Imports from the People’ Republic of China), and the Executive Order of April 9, 2025 (Modifying Reciprocal Tariff Rates to Reflect Trading Partner Retaliation and Alignment), (Subsequent Orders) — incorporate the exceptions in Executive Order 14257, including for “semiconductors.”
As Breitbart News’s John Hayward previously reported, China recently raised its tariff on U.S. imports to 125 percent, after Trump raised “China’s punitive tariff rate to 125 percent,” and “added to the 20 percent tariffs he applied in February and March” in response to China failing to address the ongoing fentanyl crisis.
