The Donald Trump administration reaffirmed that it is pursuing a plan to use semiconductor tariffs as leverage to draw production to the United States. Corporations that build semiconductor plants in the U.S. would be exempt from tariffs, while corporations that do not invest in the U.S. would pay tariffs in exchange for bringing products into the U.S. market.
Howard Lutnick, the U.S. commerce minister, said in an interview with CNBC on the 2nd that "you will see targeted, thoughtful tariff policy," adding, "Simply put, it is a policy that means 'if you produce in the United States, you do not have to pay tariffs, but if you do not produce in the United States, you must pay the price to bring products into the world's largest market.'"
He added, "The United States will succeed in the semiconductor industry, and semiconductors will be produced in the United States."
Minister Lutnick also said corporations know there is a possibility that tariffs will be introduced. However, he did not disclose specific tariff rates or the scope of application.
Regarding reports that the tariffs on semiconductors would be "intense," Minister Lutnick said, "That is accurate."
The U.S. political outlet Politico recently reported, citing eight sources, that the Trump administration is reviewing a plan to impose broad tariffs on semiconductors.
There is also a possibility that the tariff targets will not be limited to semiconductors. According to Politico, there is discussion of imposing tariffs on finished goods that use semiconductors, such as laptops, game consoles, and data center servers.
Since Jan., the Trump administration has begun imposing tariffs on some semiconductor products. It has also signaled the possibility of expanding application to semiconductors across the board going forward.
President Trump also signed a proclamation imposing a 25% tariff only on semiconductors that are imported into the United States and then re-exported to other countries, such as Nvidia's artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor chip "H200."
Taiwan's TSMC has already pledged massive investment to expand production in the United States. TSMC decided to invest a total of $265 billion (about 370 trillion won) in its semiconductor plant in Arizona. Politico said this is the largest foreign direct investment in U.S. history.
However, even with large-scale investment, it does not mean all of TSMC's production bases will move to the United States. Even after all the plants are completed, Arizona's share of TSMC's cutting-edge semiconductor production capacity is expected to be about 30%.