The Blubber

On Sunday, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said that the administration’s decision to exempt certain electronic devices from recently implemented tariffs is only a temporary measure. He noted that these products will soon be included under new “semiconductor tariffs,” likely to be introduced within the next one to two months.

“All those products are going to come under semiconductors, and they're going to have a special focus type of tariff to make sure that those products get reshored. We need to have semiconductors, we need to have chips, and we need to have flat panels—we need to have these things made in America. We can't be reliant on Southeast Asia for all of the things that operate for us,” Lutnick said during an interview on ABC’s This Week with co-anchor Jonathan Karl.

He explained that while these items are currently exempt from the “reciprocal tariffs,” they will soon be subject to the semiconductor-specific tariffs.

“So what [President Donald Trump] is doing is he's saying they're exempt from the reciprocal tariffs, but they're included in the semiconductor tariffs, which are coming in probably a month or two. So these are coming soon,” Lutnick added.

The clarification followed a bulletin from U.S. Customs and Border Protection posted Friday night, which outlined that key electronics—such as smartphones, computers, solar cells, flat-panel displays, and semiconductor-based storage devices—would be excluded from the tariffs announced since April 2. These exemptions apply to both the new tariffs on Chinese imports and the global 10% tariff President Trump had previously imposed.

Speaking on This Week, Lutnick said the administration plans to implement a tariff framework aimed at encouraging both the semiconductor and pharmaceutical industries to bring manufacturing back to the U.S.

“We can't be beholden and rely upon foreign countries for fundamental things that we need,” Lutnick said. “So this is not like a permanent sort of exemption. He's 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.”

On the status of tariff negotiations with China

Lutnick described the current state of discussions with China as “soft entrees” through intermediaries but expressed strong confidence that a resolution would eventually be reached.

“I think we've had soft—uh, the way I would say it is, is ‘soft entrees,’ you know, through intermediaries and those kinds of comments. But we all expect that the President of the United States and President Xi of China will work this out. I am completely confident, as is [Trump], that this will be worked out in a positive, thoughtful, and effective way for the United States of America.

“I mean, Donald Trump has the ball. I want him to have it. He’s the right person with it. He knows how to play this game. He knows how to deal with President Xi. This is the right person for the right role, and I am confident this is going to work out with China. Yes, is it in a tough spot now? Of course it is. But that’ll—you’ll see. All of that energy will sort of decline and will end up in a perfectly reasonable place with China. I’m confident of it.”

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