How will the Tram’s semiconductor tariff affect the global chips industry? | International Trade News

US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a tariff of up to 300 percent on semiconductor imports, with exemptions for foreign companies committed to manufacturing in the United States.

Trump threw the proposed tariff as a way to pay investment to the United States, but experts say it may disrupt global supply chains as well and even punish companies that are already making chips in the United States.

What are the details of Trump’s plan?

A few details have been released since Trump announced 100 percent tariff plans at the White House event on August 7.

The US President said that exemptions will be given to companies that build research or manufacturing facilities in the United States, but the definitions can be applied retroactively if they fail to follow their planned investments.

Trump told reporters: “If you say, for some reason, you do not build, and you did not build, then we go back, add it, it accumulates, and we receive you at a later time, you have to pay, and this is a guarantee,” Trump told reporters.

On Friday, Trump told the correspondents on the Air Force one that more details will be announced soon and that the customs tariff may be much higher than it was previously proposed.

“I will put the customs tariff next week and the next week, on steel and steel, and I would like to say chips – chips and semi -conductors, and we will put at one time next week, after a week,” Trump said on his way to Alaska to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

He added: “I will have a rate of 200 percent and 300 percent.”

Why does Trump want to impose a tariff on the imports of chips?

Trump wanted to impose a tariff on chips for several reasons, but the main thing is to reshape investment and manufacturing to the United States.

“The primary goal is to reflect the cost defect for manufacturing in the United States and convert it into an advantage. It mainly focuses on companies that are not investing in the United States,” Hachisson told Al -Jazeera.

“The exceptions are negotiable with entities that are in line with its goal of re -manufacturing to the United States.”

On a wider scale, the customs tariff also aims to address the dependence in the United States on the semiconductors and the pillar of the pillar in Washington in its ongoing competitor with China, another force to make chips.

Both issues are concerns from the two parties in the United States.

The Trump administration earlier this year launched an investigation in Article 301 in alleged commercial practices in the semiconductor industry in China, and the achievement of Article 232 in the implications of national security to rely on chips and final products that use foreign chips.

Who will be affected by tariff?

Foreign technology giants who have already invested in the United States, including the semiconductor manufacturer in Taiwan (TSMC) and South Korea, are not affected by the tariff.

It is not clear how this measure can affect other companies, including church makers, as companies face barriers to American investment from both American and Chinese organizations.

The customs tariff can be used as a financial lever by the United States because it negotiates the average “mutual tariff” in China.

The United States has imposed a comprehensive tariff ranging between 10 and 40 percent on most trade partners since August 7, but negotiators are still wandering in a comprehensive trade deal with Beijing.

“My point of view is that although the mutual tariffs generally aim to address the problem of the American trade deficit and the re -processing of manufacturing to the United States, the definitions of products or sectoral (such as semiconductors) aim to serve the strategic goal of promoting American technological dominance and includes China.”

What is the value of US chip imports every year?

The United States imported about $ 40 billion in chips in 2024, according to a report issued by the Institute of American Institutions, citing the data of the United Nations trade.

Imports came mainly from Taiwan, Malaysia, Israel, South Korea, Ireland, Vietnam, Costa Rica, Mexico and China, but experts say this data does not take the full picture of chips inside and outside the United States.

Chips can cross the boundaries several times when manufactured, mobilized, or added to ready -made goods.

Chrip War: The Fight for the World is the most important, that other $ 50 billion chips entered the United States in 2024 through products such as smartphones, car parts and home appliances from countries such as China and Vietnam.

Miller also estimates that a “large part” of American chips’s imports is manufactured in the United States before sending them abroad for packaging-a heavy employment process-and then re-importing it.

“It is possible that many chips imported from major commercial partners such as Mexico, Malaysia and Costa Rica are manufactured by American companies such as Texas Intel, which have manufacturing in the United States but often have testing and assembling facilities abroad,” Miller told Al Jazeera.

Why is the customs tariff a concern for the global chips industry?

Trump’s tariff plans are more uncertain in an industry that is already struggling with his full management efforts to rearrange world trade.

“It is not clear whether the United States government has the ability to enforce this effectively and … there are no directives regarding what these definitions will already appear,” Nick Maru, the lead analyst for global trade in the Economic Intelligence Unit, told Al Jazerera:

The White House has not yet provided details about whether the tariff will be applied to the chips, which are already made in the United States and the chips in the final products.

If the latter is included in the tariff plans, the repercussions will extend to industries such as Electronics, home appliances, cars and car parts.

Miller said that consumers in the United States and other places will be among those who are most affected by the customs tariff.

“Initially, most costs appear to be paid by companies with lower profit margins, although consumers in the long run, they will pay the majority of the cost,” he said.