Trump moves to put up-to-date tariffs for computer chips and drugs

The Trump administration took steps on Monday, which can cause up-to-date tariffs for a semiconductor and pharmaceutical products, adding to the president of President Trump around the world.

Federal notifications, which on Monday afternoon said that the administration began investigating national security in the field of importing systems and pharmaceuticals. Mr. Trump suggested that these investigations may result in tariffs.

Research also includes machines used for the production of semiconductors, products containing tokens and pharmaceutical components.

In a statement confirming the moving Kush Desai, a spokesman for the White House, said that the president “has long been clear as to the importance of transforming production, which is crucial for the national and economic security of our country.”

The up-to-date semiconductor and pharmaceutical tariffs will be issued in accordance with Section 232 of the 1962 Trade Expansion Act, which allows the President to impose tariffs to protect the national security of the USA.

Earlier that day, Trump suggested that he would soon impose up-to-date tariffs on semiconductors and pharmaceuticals, because he was looking for a larger domestic production.

“The higher the tariff, the faster they enter,” Trump told reporters in the White House, citing import taxes, which he imposed on steel, aluminum and cars.

Semiconductors are used to supply electronics, cars, toys and other goods. The United States is strongly dependent on systems imported from Taiwan and other places in Asia, consisting of both democrats and Republicans described as the main risk of national security.

As for pharmaceuticals, Trump argued that too many essential drugs were imported. “We don’t produce our own drugs anymore,” he said.

Some drugs are produced at least partly in the United States, although China, Ireland and India are significant sources of some types of pharmaceuticals.

Mr. Trump also signaled Monday that he could offer certain companies relief from his tariffs, as in the case of importing electronics in recent days – a break from his earlier insistence, so that he would not save the entire industries.

The president said that “he looks at something that will support some car companies in which they go into parts produced in Canada, Mexico and other places.” He added: “And they need some time because they have to do them here.” General Motors, Ford Motor and Stellantis actions jumped after his comments.

“I am a very pliant person. I do not change my mind, but I am pliant,” said Trump on Monday when possible release was asked. He added that he talked to the director of Apple, Tim Cook and “helped him lately.”

The president has announced significant changes over the past week in his trading program, which ruined markets and scared companies that he tries to convince to invest in the United States.

Mr. Trump announced the program of global “mutual” tariffs on April 2, including high fees for countries that produce many electronics, such as Vietnam. But after the confusion on the bond market, he stopped these global tariffs for 90 days so that his government could carry out trade negotiations with other countries.

These import taxes appeared in addition to other tariffs, which Mr. Trump placed in various sectors and countries, including a 10 % tariff for the entire US import; 25 -percentage tariff for steel, aluminum and cars; and a 25 -percent tariff for many goods from Canada and Mexico. In total, the movements have increased the US tariffs to levels that have not been observable for over a century.

Among the dispute with China, Trump raised the tariffs to Chinese imports to a minimum of 145 percent last week, before he released smartphones, laptops, televisions and other electronics on Friday. These goods constitute about a quarter of the US import from China.

The administration argued that this movement was simply a “explanation”, saying that this electronics would be taken into account in the scope of investigation in the matter of national security on agreements.

But the directors and industry analysts wondered if the real administration motivation could be avoiding the slack associated with a rapid price raise for many consumer electronics – or helping technology companies, such as Apple, which in recent days reached the White House to argue that the tariffs will hurt them.

Mr. Trump has already used the legal authority in accordance with Section 232 to issue tariffs on imported steel, aluminum and cars. The administration also uses the rights to conduct investigations in the field of wood and copper imports.

On Monday, notifications said that the administration began investigating the import of pharmaceuticals and semiconductors on April 1. Neither the White House nor the president said before that this process officially began.

Kevin Hassetstt, director of the National Economic Council of the White House, told journalists on Monday that the chip tariffs are needed for national security.

“The example I like to operate is that if you have a cannon, but you get cannon balls from your opponent, if there were to be a action, you can miss cannon balls,” he said. “So you can apply a tariff to cannon balls.”

Mr. Trump argued that the toke tariffs would force companies to transfer their factories to the United States.

Some technology companies reacted to the president’s requests to build more in the United States. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s largest chip manufacturer, announced in March in the White House that in the next four years he spent $ 100 billion in the United States to raise production capacity.

Apple announced that over the next four years, spending $ 500 billion in the United States to expand facilities across the country.

On Monday, NVIDIA, a chip manufacturer, announced that it will produce supercomputers for artificial intelligence made entirely in the United States. Over the next four years, the company will produce up to $ 500 billion in AI infrastructure in the United States in cooperation with TSMC and other companies.

“World AI infrastructure engines are built in the United States for the first time,” said Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA in a statement.

The White House blew up the messages in the advertisement that the president assigned.

“This is a Trump effect in action,” said the statement, adding: “Onshoring of these industries is good for an American employee, good for the American economy and good for American national security – and the best is even the best has come.”

But some critics questioned how many tariffs will really support strengthen the American industry, given that Trump administration is also threatened with the withdrawal of subsidies granted to factories of chip factories by Biden administration. And foreign governments, such as China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, complement the robust production of semiconductors using tools such as subsidies and tax breaks.

All over the world, 105 up-to-date chip factories or FAB, according to data developed by Simi, the Association of Global Semiconductor Suppliers. Fifteen of them are planned for the United States, while the mass is in Asia.

Mr. Trump criticized the Chips Act, a program worth $ 50 billion established as part of Biden administration and aimed at offering incentives for the production of chip in the United States. He called the subsidy of a loss of money and insisted that the tariffs themselves were sufficient to encourage the production of domestic chips.

Jimmy Goodrich, senior rand corporation for technology analysis, said that the tariffs can be effective “in the event of cunning, as part of a broader strategy for the Revitalization of the American Chip Making, which includes domestic production and preferential purchases of tax relief, as well as clever ways to limit the upcoming Tsun Chinese excess.”

“However,” he added, “the United States themselves constitute only a quarter of all global demand for goods with tokens, so working with allied nations is crucial.”

Administrative officials suggested that the chip tariff can be applied to semiconductors that come to the United States in other devices. Most tokens are not directly imported – they rather consist of electronics, toys and car parts in Asia or Mexico before sending to the United States.

The United States does not have a system of using tariffs for closed systems in other products, but the United States Trade Representative Office began to look for this question during Biden administration. The management of the Chip industry claims that such a system would be tough to determine, but possible.

Rebecca Robbins Seattle reports were submitted.