Trump administration will not spare electronic products from tariffs, says US Commerce Secretary

Electronic products will be included in the Trump administration’s upcoming sector-specific tariffs, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in an interview with ABC News on Sunday.

“Electronics products will be part of upcoming sectoral tariffs,” Lutnick was quoted as saying.

He clarified that electronic goods would fall under the semiconductors category and would be subject to “special tariffs coming soon.”


According to Lutnick, semiconductor and electronics tariffs will be implemented within a month, while pharmaceutical tariffs are expected in the next month or two.

""We can't be relying on China for fundamental things that we need: our medicines and our semiconductors need to be built in America," Howard Lutnick told ABC news.

The announcement follows a recent move by the administration that appeared to temporarily spare the electronics sector.

Trump admin backtracks from previous respite

U.S. Customs and Border Protection had published exemptions from the proposed 125% reciprocal tariffs on Chinese imports, specifically excluding smartphones, laptops, and a range of other electronic products, Bloomberg reported on Saturday.

The exclusions were intended to protect consumers from price shocks and to mitigate inflationary concerns, Bloomberg noted.

Among the products exempted were smartphones, hard drives, processors, memory chips, and semiconductor manufacturing equipment — items that are largely not produced in the United States and would take years to establish domestically.

The exemption list was seen as a major benefit to companies like Apple, Samsung, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which has pledged major investments in U.S.-based chip facilities.

However, Bloomberg also reported that these exemptions might only offer temporary relief, with more targeted tariffs likely being developed behind the scenes.

While semiconductors have been singled out by former President Trump for new tariff measures, no specific rate had been finalised as of yet.

The administration’s sectoral tariffs have so far been set at 25%, but the exact figure for electronics and chips remains uncertain.