The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recently announced an exemption from reciprocal tariffs on electronic products such as laptops, smartphones, and chips, but President Trump stated on the 13th that there is no tariff exemption, just a different tariff category, calling it fake news, "No one escapes responsibility, especially China."
On the 13th, Trump emphasized on social media, "No one can escape responsibility for the unfair trade deficit and non-monetary trade barriers, especially China, which treats us the worst, far worse than other countries!"
Trump stated that there was no announcement of any so-called tariff exemption on the 11th, as these products are still subject to the current 20% fentanyl tariff restriction, they are just categorized into another tariff 'bucket', "Fake news media knows about this but refuses to report."
He said that the U.S. government will comprehensively review the semiconductor and overall electronics supply chain in the upcoming "National Security Tariff Investigation" to ensure that key industries are no longer overly dependent on hostile countries.
Trump frankly stated, "We really need to manufacture products domestically in the U.S., and we must never be held hostage by other countries again, especially by hostile trade opponents like China, who are always trying to humiliate the American people. We also cannot allow them to continue to oppress us in trade as they have for decades. Those days are over!"
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection released a document on the evening of the 11th listing 20 items temporarily exempted from reciprocal tariffs, including computers, smartphones, and chips. According to the document, these products can even be exempt from the basic 10% reciprocal tariff.
Several media reports analyzed that this is the first signal of the Trump administration's softening in the tariff war against China. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce also issued a statement saying that this is "a small step in correcting the unilateral reciprocal tariff mispractice."
But following these reports, Trump administration officials came forward to downplay the significance of exempting electronic products from reciprocal tariffs.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Lutney stated in an interview with ABC on Sunday that this is only a temporary measure and announced that such products will be subject to "semiconductor tariffs," along with semiconductor products, potentially "implemented in 1 or 2 months."