Donald Trump’s tariff policies appear to be changing once again.
It appears that the Trump administration’s tariff exemptions on iPhones and other electronics announced on Friday are coming back. After imposing a whopping 145 percent tariff on goods from China, Trump rolled out exceptions that were surely welcomed by tech companies like Apple.
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The tariff exceptions covered a slew of electronics from China. While the baseline tariffs remained, the exceptions spared them the high reciprocal tariffs that Trump recently placed on Chinese exports into the U.S. The exempted products included electronics such as smartphones, laptops, semiconductors, and flat-panel display modules.
However, on Sunday, April 13, the Trump administration was singing a different tune.
Appearing on This Week on ABC News, Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said that the smartphone and computer tariff exemptions are only temporary.
“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,” Lutnick said.
“This is not like a permanent sort of exemption,” Lutnick continued before referring to Trump’s thinking on tariffs. “He’s just clarifying that these are not available to be negotiated away by countries. These are things that are national security, that we need to be made in America.”
According to Lutnick, the products exempted from the current reciprocal tariffs will be covered under new “semiconductor tariffs” that Trump will likely announce in “a month or two.”
So, if you breathed a sigh of relief because you didn’t yet panic-buy an iPhone before prices skyrocketed due to the tariffs, just know that your relief is only temporary.
