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US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick on Sunday said the Trump administration’s decision to temporarily exempt electronics like smartphones and laptops from steep new import tariffs was not permanent and that the products would soon fall under a new policy targeting the semiconductor sector.
“They’re exempt from the reciprocal tariffs but they’re included in the semiconductor tariffs, which are coming in probably a month or two,” Lutnick told ABC’s ‘This Week’, making it clear the brief relief for consumer electronics was only a pause before a more targeted approach.
The White House on Friday had excluded several electronics from the wide-ranging “reciprocal tariffs” introduced earlier this month, in a move that was expected to benefit tech giants like Apple, Samsung, and Nvidia. The exemption included devices such as smartphones, laptops, flat-panel monitors, hard drives, and chips, according to a US Customs and Border Protection bulletin.
Semiconductor manufacturing machines were also spared from immediate levies.
But just hours after Lutnick’s clarification, US President Donald Trump directly contradicted the idea of any exemption. In a post on Truth Social, he declared there was no tariff “exception” at all, saying the goods were merely being moved to a different category and would still face a 20% tariff.
“Nobody is getting off the hook,” Trump wrote. “We will not be held hostage by other Countries, especially hostile trading Nations like China.”
As per AFP, the White House now plans to launch a new wave of national security investigations aimed at the broader electronics and semiconductor supply chain, part of a push to reshore key industries. Lutnick reinforced that view, saying, “We need to have semiconductors… made in America. We can’t be reliant on Southeast Asia for all the things that operate for us.”
The temporary reprieve comes as part of a confusing sequence of tariff changes by the Trump administration, with sharp reversals sparking uncertainty for companies and investors alike. Lutnick confirmed the administration was crafting a separate tariff model “in order to encourage” semiconductor and pharmaceutical manufacturing in the US.
Some analysts saw Friday’s exemptions as a response to backlash over rising tech costs. According to AP, the administration’s sweeping tariffs had battered the market value of the tech industry’s “Magnificent Seven” — including Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Tesla, Meta, Alphabet, and Amazon, with a $2.1 trillion drop from April 2. That loss narrowed after Trump paused tariffs for countries outside China, but Friday’s contradictory messaging cast new doubts.
China, meanwhile, has urged the US to drop the tariffs altogether. As per AFP, Beijing’s commerce ministry said the Friday exemption “represents a small step” and warned that the US should “completely cancel” its aggressive trade strategy.
While Trump has promised to provide further details on Monday, officials have confirmed that China remains excluded from any wider tariff pause. According to AFP, there are no plans yet for talks between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Trump is expected to clarify the administration’s stance on electronics and semiconductors further on Monday.
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