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US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick said smartphones, computers and other consumer electronics may be hit with separate tariffs in a month, suggesting that exemptions offered on Saturday could be temporary.
Late on Friday, the Trump administration excluded smartphones and other consumer electronics from its steep “reciprocal” tariffs in a significant boost for Big Tech following a week of intense turbulence in US markets after the president unleashed a trade war on “liberation day” on April 2.
But speaking on ABC’s This Week on Sunday, Lutnick said products such as smartphones, laptops and wireless earphones that were offered a reprieve on Friday would be re-examined as part of a government probe into semiconductors, that could result in tariffs.
“What he’s doing is he’s saying they’re exempt from the reciprocal tariffs,” Lutnick said, referring to President Donald Trump. “But they’re included in the semiconductor tariffs, which are coming in probably a month or two.”
When asked to clarify whether tariffs on iPhones might “come back on in a month or so”, Lutnick replied: “Correct. That’s right . . . We need our medicines and we need semiconductors and our electronics to be built in America.”
His comments will stoke uncertainty for businesses over Trump’s tariff rollout, which has been marked by a series of reversals and last week caused an intense sell-off in the $29tn US Treasuries market.
