US could unveil semiconductor tariffs next week

Washington:  US President Donald Trump has said his administration will unveil tariffs on semiconductor imports as early as next week, as South Korean tech firms Samsung Electronics and SK hynix have been carefully watching his tariff policy developments.

Trump made the remarks in a meeting with reporters aboard Air Force One, as he was en route to Alaska for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin — the high-stakes meeting where Trump is seeking to broker a halt to the war in Ukraine, reports Yonhap news agency.

“Chips and semiconductors, we’ll be setting sometime next week, (or) the week after,” Trump said, according to a White House press pool report.

He did not elaborate on the exact tariff rate, but said there would be a tariff increase from a “lower” rate to a “very high” rate.

“Well, I’m going to have a rate that is going to be lower at the beginning. Then that gives them a chance to come in and build. And very high after a certain period of time,” he said.

“And if they don’t build here, they have to pay a very high tariff.”

Last week, Trump said his administration will impose a tariff of about 100 percent on chips, as he is pushing to strengthen semiconductor production in the U.S.

To impose the tariffs, Trump has invoked Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, a law that provides the president with the authority to adjust imports into the U.S. when he determines they threaten to impair national security.

Meanwhile, Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin concluded their high-stakes summit in Alaska without any announcement on a ceasefire in the protracted war in Ukraine, though the two leaders cast their talks as “extremely productive” and “constructive,” respectively.

After their talks in Anchorage, Trump said the two sides agreed on “many points,” but they “haven’t quite got there” when it comes to “a couple of big ones,” as he stressed, “There is no deal until there is a deal.”

Trump and Putin had their first meeting in six years as Washington has cranked up diplomacy to broker a halt to the deadly war that has raged since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

—IANS