US President Donald Trump said that the Washington administration has not made exemptions from tariffs on imported goods from China.
“No one gets off the hook for the unfair trade balances and non-monetary tariff barriers that other countries have used against us, especially China, which is currently treating us the worst“, he wrote on Truth Social.
“No tariff “exemptions“ were announced on Friday. These goods are subject to the existing 20% tariff on fentanyl and are simply being moved to a different tariff “basket“. The fake news media knows this but refuses to report it,” Trump added.
He said his administration would investigate whether tariffs on the entire electronics supply chain were in the national security interests of the United States.
“It turns out that we have to manufacture in the United States and we are not going to be hostages to other countries, especially hostile trade powers like China, who will do everything in their power to disrespect the American people,“ the White House resident added.
“We cannot allow them to continue to bully us on trade, as they have for decades. Those days are over,” Trump concluded.
On Friday, Bloomberg reported, citing U.S. Customs and Border Protection, that the U.S. administration had exempted shipments of smartphones, computers and other electronics from retaliatory tariffs. Commenting on the move, China's Ministry of Commerce called it "a small step by the United States to correct its wrong policy of imposing unilateral reciprocal tariffs."
On Sunday, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said that the U.S. administration, after temporarily exempting smartphones, computers and other electronics from reciprocal tariffs, plans to impose separate industrial tariffs on them. He said these goods "will fall into the category of semiconductors," which will be subject to tariffs "in a month or two."
On April 2, Trump announced the imposition of tariffs on goods from 185 countries and territories. On April 9, he announced that he was postponing tariff increases for 90 days for 75 countries that have expressed a willingness to negotiate. They will be subject to import duties of 10%. This measure does not apply to China.
The US president then told Beijing that the 104% tariffs would remain in place until China reached a trade deal with the US. This led to countermeasures: China raised tariffs on US goods to 84%. In turn, Trump announced an immediate increase in the rate on goods from China to 125%. With a previously imposed tariff of 20% due to the "insufficient efforts" of the governments of Canada, China and Mexico to combat the smuggling of fentanyl into the US, the total tariff on goods from China now reaches 145%. On Friday, Chinese authorities announced that they would raise tariffs on US goods from 84% to 125% from April 12.