{"id":891,"date":"2025-08-07T02:25:28","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T22:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/trump-threatens-100-percent-tariff-on-computer-chips-with-a-gigantic-loophole\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T02:25:28","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T22:25:28","slug":"trump-threatens-100-percent-tariff-on-computer-chips-with-a-gigantic-loophole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/trump-threatens-100-percent-tariff-on-computer-chips-with-a-gigantic-loophole\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump threatens 100 percent tariff on computer chips with a gigantic loophole"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In the very first week of his presidency, Donald Trump vowed<\/a> to force silicon manufacturing back to the United States by making processors more expensive, a threat he\u2019s repeated since<\/a>. Is he finally going through with that plan? Trump just announced he\u2019ll putting an enormous 100 percent tariff on chips and semiconductors \u2014 unless your company kisses the ring like Apple CEO Tim Cook just did, perhaps.<\/p>\n

In the same live news conference where Apple announced a new $100 billion US manufacturing plan<\/a> and presented Trump with a 24-karat gold and glass statue<\/a>, the president explained that Apple had now done enough to escape his upcoming import taxes on chips:<\/p>\n

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We\u2019re going to be putting a very large tariff on chips and semiconductors, but the good news for companies like Apple is if you\u2019re building in the United States or have committed to build without question in the United States, there will be no charge. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And, it\u2019s possible that other companies already have, or easily will, meet Trump\u2019s bar for participation. Trump told the in-person and online audience that even a commitment<\/em> to invest in US manufacturing may be enough to escape the tariffs. \u201c[If you\u2019re building in the United States of America, there\u2019s no charge, even though you\u2019re building and not producing yet,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you\u2019ve made a commitment to build or you\u2019re in the process of building, as many are, there is no tariff, OK?\u201d <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s our transcript of Trump\u2019s full remarks on the topic:<\/p>\n

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We\u2019ll be putting a tariff on of approximately 100 percent, on chips and semiconductors. But if you\u2019re building in the United States of America, there\u2019s no charge, even though you\u2019re building and not producing yet, in terms of the big numbers of jobs and all of the things that you\u2019re building. If you\u2019re building there will be no charge [\u2026] 100 percent tariff on all chips and semiconductors coming into the United States, but if you\u2019ve made a commitment to build or you\u2019re in the process of building, as many are, there is no tariff, OK? If for some reason you say you\u2019re building and you don\u2019t build then we go back and add it up, it accumulates and we charge you at a later date. You have to pay, and that\u2019s a guarantee.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s hard to think which companies a new chip tariff would<\/em> apply to, as most major chipmakers already have at least some small commitment to US manufacturing. Taiwan\u2019s TSMC, which accounts for the vast majority of leading-edge chips and drew Trump\u2019s ire as a result, announced a $100 billion US investment back in March<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Or, perhaps, is Trump threatening tariffs on the makers of products that use chips rather than the makers of chips themselves? Apple isn\u2019t exactly a chipmaker, after all; it does design its own chips but relies on companies like TSMC to actually make them. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s also possible that Trump won\u2019t enact this particular tariff at all. After previously threatening tariffs on chips in January and February<\/a>, the Trump administration excluded them from tariffs<\/a> come April. Trump did not say when new chip tariffs might happen. Trump\u2019s new general reciprocal tariffs on dozens of countries<\/a> go into effect tomorrow, August 7th.<\/p>\n

In July, AMD CEO Lisa Su revealed<\/a> that TSMC\u2019s US-made chips would cost it an extra 5 to 20 percent more than ones made overseas.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the very first week of his presidency, Donald Trump vowed to force silicon manufacturing back to the United States […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.actutech.app\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}