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President Trump had exempted certain electronics from tariffs, but says it’s a temporary measure and that a different tariff will be applied to the sector soon. The decision spared smartphones, computers, semiconductors, and other electronics from some of the tariffs the US enacted on China.
US president has said no one is ‘getting off the hook’, as he promises to launch a national security investigation into the semiconductor sector.
“Nobody is getting ‘off the hook,’” Trump said in a social media post.
The exempted products are “just moving to a different Tariff ‘bucket’” and the administration will be “taking a look at Semiconductors and the whole electronics supply chain,” he added.
By Gamuchirai Mapako
President Donald Trump has threatened to maintain tariffs on phones, computers, and popular consumer gadgets, dismissing a weekend exception as a procedural move in his wider effort to restructure US trade.
The reprieve, which exempts a range of popular gadgets from 125% tariffs in China and a 10% flat rate globally, is temporary and part of a long-standing plan to levy the sector differently. Trump reiterated the proposal on Sunday.
The delay was a brief victory for Apple Inc. and other manufacturers, particularly those that rely on Chinese production, and the Chinese government welcomed the exemptions and urged Trump to go farther.
“This is a small step by the US toward correcting its wrongful action of unilateral ‘reciprocal tariffs,’” the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a statement posted on its official WeChat account on Sunday.
The ministry urged the US to “take a big stride in completely abolishing the wrongful action, and return to the correct path of resolving differences through equal dialog based on mutual respect.”
China is not backing down from the trade war adding “The so-called “reciprocal tariffs” issued by an executive order not only violate the basic economic and market laws, but also ignore the complementary cooperation and supply-demand relationship between countries.”
China maintains that since its launch on April 2, the “reciprocal tariffs” have not only failed to solve any of the US’s own problems, but have seriously undermined the international economic and trade order, seriously disrupted the normal production and operation of enterprises and people’s life and consumption, and harmed others without benefiting itself.
China’s position on Sino-US economic and trade relations is consistent. A statement issued by the Chinese government read, “ There are no winners in a trade war and no way out for protectionism. As an old Chinese saying goes, “The one who tied the bell must untie it.”
The US is urged to address international community and domestic parties’ concerns, correct its mistakes, cancel reciprocal tariffs, and return to mutual respect and equal dialogue.
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