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The tech industry may not be safe from new tariffs, according to U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration announced Friday evening that consumer electronics such as laptops and smartphones would be exempt<\/a> from the tariffs it unveiled earlier this month. (While Trump delayed many of those tariffs<\/a> this week, he left a 10% baseline tariff in place, and also levied an additional 125% tariff on Chinese goods.)<\/p>\n Reports about the exemptions<\/a> noted that tech products might still be affected by targeted tariffs to come, with semiconductors coming under particular scrutiny.<\/p>\n Lutnick made that more explicit on Sunday morning during an interview<\/a> with the ABC show \u201cThis Week,\u201d saying that Trump is making these products \u201cexempt from the reciprocal tariffs\u201d but including them in \u201cthe semiconductor tariffs, which are coming in probably a month or two.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAll those products are going to come under semiconductors, and they\u2019re going to have a special focus type of tariff to make sure that those products get reshored,\u201d Lutnick said. \u201cWe need to have semiconductors, we need to have chips, and we need to have flat panels \u2014 we need to have these things made in America.\u201d<\/p>\n Pressed on whether tariffs will mean higher prices for American consumers, Lutnick said, \u201cI don\u2019t think so,\u201d and again emphasized, \u201cI think the idea is that we can manufacture in America.\u201d (Others have said Lutnick\u2019s vision<\/a> that \u201cthe army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in little screws to make iPhones, that kind of thing is going to come to America,\u201d is a fantasy<\/a>.)<\/p>\n Trump himself was asked about semiconductor tariffs<\/a> this weekend, and he said, \u201cI\u2019ll give you that answer Monday.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n