{"id":40947,"date":"2025-04-13T18:24:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-13T23:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=40947"},"modified":"2025-04-14T02:26:47","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T07:26:47","slug":"trump-defends-tariff-exemptions-for-electronics-nobody-getting-off-the-hook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=40947","title":{"rendered":"Trump defends tariff exemptions for electronics: Nobody getting \u2018off the hook\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

President Trump\u2002<\/u><\/a>defended his move on Friday to exempt some electronics from the escalating tariff war with China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He denied the announcement amounted to an \u201cexception,\u201d arguing instead the products were moved to a different tariff \u201cbucket,\u201d and suggested his administration could still impose separate tariffs for the semiconductor industry and broader electronics supply chain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was no Tariff \u2018exception\u2019 announced on Friday,\u201d Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Sunday. \u201cThese products are subject to the existing 20% Fentanyl Tariffs, and they are just moving to a different Tariff \u2018bucket.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are taking a look at Semiconductors and the WHOLE ELECTRONICS SUPPLY CHAIN in the upcoming National Security Tariff Investigations,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which collects duties on imports, issued updated guidance on Friday<\/u><\/a> indicating roughly 20 products \u2014 including smartphones, computers, routers and semiconductor chips \u2014 would be excluded from the \u201creciprocal\u201d tariffs imposed on countries including China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump has ratcheted up tariffs on China to 125 percent on top of 20 percent levies, as he has put a 90-day pause on elevated tariffs for other countries, leading to a proportionate response<\/u><\/a> from Beijing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That has escalated fears of a massive trade war between the world\u2019s two largest economies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his post on Truth Social, Trump blasted the media for covering the Friday guidance as a softening in his position on China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNOBODY is getting \u2018off the hook\u2019 for the unfair Trade Balances, and Non Monetary Tariff Barriers, that other Countries have used against us, especially not China which, by far, treats us the worst!\u201d Trump wrote in his Truth Social post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s remarks coincide with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick saying on Sunday<\/u><\/a> that the tariff exemptions for smartphones and other electronics would only be temporary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is not like a permanent sort of exemption. [Trump\u2019s] 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,\u201d Lutnick told ABC\u2019s \u201cThis Week.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in a statement on Saturday that Trump was still committed to seeing more of the exempted products and components made domestically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPresident Trump has made it clear America cannot rely on China to manufacture critical technologies\u201d and that at his direction, tech companies \u201care hustling to onshore their manufacturing in the United States as soon as possible,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

thehill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Trump\u2002defended his move on Friday to exempt some electronics from the escalating tariff war with China. He denied the announcement amounted to an \u201cexception,\u201d arguing instead the products were moved to a different tariff \u201cbucket,\u201d and suggested his administration could still impose separate tariffs for the semiconductor industry and broader electronics supply chain. \u201cThere […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":40948,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1705,23198,32958,3616,1230],"class_list":["post-40947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-defense","tag-electronics","tag-exemptions","tag-tariffs","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40947"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40949,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40947\/revisions\/40949"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}