United States President Donald Trump has threatened new tariffs on Chinese electronic goods, three days after his administration announced exemptions on smartphones, laptops, flash drives and a host of other tech products from levies he has announced since April 2.
Those exemptions provided relief to US tech companies reliant on Chinese manufacturing, like Apple and chip company Nvidia, which saw their stocks rise considerably after the release of Friday’s notice.
Then came Monday’s announcement, which sparked criticism of Trump over his back-and-forth tariffs – after suggestions from his opponents and some experts that he had in effect withdrawn many of the steep tariffs previously imposed on China.
But the latest tariffs that the Trump administration partially rolled back on Friday are only part of the most recent levies imposed on Chinese electronics as part of an ongoing, dizzying tit-for-tat tariff dispute that has been playing out in recent weeks between the world’s two largest economies.
In fact, this tense tariff tussle predates Trump’s current term and is rooted in his first stint in office and former President Joe Biden’s own imposition of duties on Chinese goods.
So what tariffs did the Trump administration pull back over the weekend? Are Chinese electronics still subject to US tariffs? How much are they? And how is Trump responding to criticism of the rollback?
What tariffs did the Trump administration waive?
After dramatic back-and-forth tariff hikes between the US and China through last week, Washington appeared to bend on Friday.
A notice issued by US Customs and Border Protection on Friday listed more than a dozen product categories that would be exempted from the wave of tariffs that Trump has imposed on China since April 2.
They included computers, laptops, disc drives and automatic data processing equipment, products that are largely not made in the US but in China. Smartphones, memory cards, semiconductor devices, solar cells, modems, routers and flat panel displays were also included on the exemptions list.
Friday’s notice specifically mentioned exemptions for these products from tariffs imposed on China on April 2, Tuesday and Wednesday.
The April 2 tariffs raised the duties on all Chinese goods from 20 percent to 54 percent. On Tuesday, Trump announced another 50 percent increase, taking the total tariff rate to 104 percent. Then, a day later, after China increased tariffs on US products to 84 percent, Trump raised duties on imports from China to 145 percent.
An analysis by the finance firm Capital Economics concluded that Trump did Apple CEO Tim Cook “a solid” favour with the exemptions. The exemptions covered goods that accounted for 23 percent of US imports from China, the firm concluded.
What did Trump say on Sunday?
After criticism of Friday’s waivers, Trump iterated that China was not being exempt from tariffs.
“NOBODY is getting ‘off the hook’ for the unfair Trade Balances, and Monetary Tariff Barriers, that other Countries have used against us, especially not China which, by far, treats us the worst!” Trump posted on his Truth Social media platform.
Top officials also insisted that any tariff exemptions that Chinese electronics would benefit from are temporary.
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told journalists Chinese electronics were now exempt from sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs initially imposed by Trump on dozens of countries on April 2 but the goods would still face forthcoming levies that are being prepared.
“[Electronics are] 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 News on Sunday.
Trump then changed that timeline – dramatically. He declared he would announce new tariffs on semiconductors from China on Monday.
Are Chinese electronics free of US tariffs at the moment?
Not at all.
The Trump administration only rolled back tariffs imposed since April 2 on select electronics.
Electronics imported by the US – including iPhones, laptops and other gadgets – still face at least the 20 percent tariffs that Trump imposed on all Chinese goods from January 20, the day he took office for the second time, to April 2.
On February 1, Trump imposed a 10 percent tax on all Chinese goods. He raised that by another 10 percent on March 4, bringing a baseline surcharge on Chinese goods to 20 percent.
And the tariff exemption announced on Friday on semiconductor products is a bit of a mirage too.
Even before Trump took office, Biden had introduced a 50 percent tariff on all Chinese semiconductors, which took effect on January 1. Trump has not removed that duty. Most electronic goods that the US imports from China, including smartphones and laptops, run on these semiconductors. It is unclear whether they too might face the brunt of the tariffs on semiconductors.
Additionally, a series of Biden-era sanctions on Chinese semiconductor companies, limiting their access to high-end chips, remains in force.
What’s next?
Trump has said he plans to impose new tariffs on Chinese electronics on Monday. He also upped the rhetoric against Beijing, saying his administration would launch a “National Security Tariff Investigation” to look into the US semiconductors supply chain and China’s role in it.
China is the largest source for semiconductor chips in the world. In 2023 and 2024, the biggest markets for its chip exports were the US ($647m), Singapore ($128m) and Italy ($83.5m), according to data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity.
Speaking to CNN, the director of the National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett, explained that the US would investigate the semiconductor supply chain before more tariffs are placed on that industry. Under US trade law, the president has powers to restrict the trade of products seen as critical to national security after an investigation has been concluded.
“Semiconductors are the key, important part of a lot of defence equipment. There’s going to be a semiconductor 232 that studies those things carefully and decides what has to be on-shored in order to protect America,” Hassett told CNN on Sunday, referring to Section 232 of the US Trade Expansion Act.
What is the state of the US-China trade war?
The latest salvoes over electronic gadgets and semiconductors are a subplot to a larger trade war that the US and China have escalated in recent days, placing retaliatory tariffs on each other since Trump’s April 2 announcement.
Chinese exports to the US – other than the electronic goods exempted on Friday – presently carry a 145 percent levy. US goods entering China carry a 125 percent surcharge.
Countries have scrambled to negotiate better deals with Washington since the sweeping tariffs were announced. Last week, the US paused additional tariffs on most countries for 90 days, instead imposing a flat 10 percent tariff on all their goods
China – which has declared a “fight to the end” – was not included in those deals.
Markets have been volatile since Trump announced his tariffs. The president has insisted that stock market turbulence is the “short-term” consequence of resetting the global trade order, which would ultimately prove rewarding to US consumers.
However, as expectations of a surge in inflation grow, experts said the US exemptions announced on Friday demonstrated an increasing awareness within the administration of the pain that the tariffs have in store for US manufacturers and consumers.
Apple is only one of many US companies on edge during the trade war. The majority of its iPhones – about 90 percent – are assembled in China through its local partner, Foxconn. China produces an estimated 80 percent of Apple’s products.
Lobbying groups representing tech companies Intel, Nvidia and other companies have urged Washington to negotiate trade deals that would lower trade barriers globally.
Other sectors have been impacted too.
In March, Trump placed a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminium imports from all countries, including China. Beijing is the world’s largest steel and aluminium producer. Direct steel exports to the US in 2024 accounted for only about 4.1 percent of its total production. Aluminium exports to the US were higher at 16 percent of China’s total production in 2024.
Then, on April 3, the Trump administration announced a 25 percent tariff on imported automobiles. China was again impacted: Beijing is the world’s biggest car manufacturer. Although its auto exports to the US accounted for about 2 percent of total US auto imports – or just 0.4 percent of auto sales in 2024, according to the credit rating firm S&P, Chinese automakers are so integrated into the global supply chain that new tariffs from any one country could impact them negatively.
On May 3, 25 percent tariffs on all imported auto parts also kick in.
Although Trump administration officials have suggested Americans can avoid a price increase on foreign cars by buying ones that are made domestically, experts have warned that no car manufactured in the US relies entirely on American parts.