ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE: United States President Donald Trump said on Friday (Aug 15) he would announce tariffs on imports of steel and semiconductor chips in the coming weeks.
“I’ll be setting tariffs next week and the week after on steel and on, I would say, chips,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he headed to a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
He said the rates would be lower at the start to allow companies to build up domestic manufacturing in the US, rising sharply later, following a pattern he has also outlined for tariffs on pharmaceuticals. He gave no exact rates.
“I’m going to have a rate that is going to be lower at the beginning – that gives them a chance to come in and build – and very high after a certain period of time,” he said.
Trump said he felt confident that companies would opt to manufacture in the United States, rather than face high tariffs.
Trump has upended global trade by imposing sharply higher duties on nearly all countries’ exports to the US, along with tariffs on specific sectors, such as automotive.
Trump in February raised tariffs on steel and aluminium to a flat 25 per cent, but he announced in May that he would double the rate to 50 per cent to boost domestic manufacturers.
It was not immediately clear if another tariff increase on the metals was in the offing.
Trump said last week he would impose a tariff of 100 per cent on imports of semiconductors, but companies that committed to building up manufacturing in the US would be exempt.
His remarks were made in tandem with an announcement that Apple would be investing an additional US$100 billion in its home market.
