More from US tariffs: how Trump’s tax is hitting Big Tech and beyond
The 25 percent tariffs Donald Trump announced for Canada and Mexico just a couple of days ago have been quickly pared back. First there was a 30-day exemption for automakers and now, as Bloomberg and the New York Times report, goods from either country covered by the USMCA trade agreement are also exempt, at least until April 2nd.
The suspension effectively abandons many of the tariffs that Mr. Trump had placed on Canadian and Mexican products — levies he said were necessary to stem the flow of drugs and migrants into the United States.
US consumers hoping to avoid price increases associated with Trump’s tariffs can’t just “buy American,” not with supply chains spanning North America and the world. The New York Times explores the impact tariffs will have on US automakers who are particularly at risk given the number of cars assembled in Mexico and Canada — with US-made engines and transmissions — before being shipped back across the border for purchase.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick tells Fox Business that President Trump’s administration may announce some kind of changes to the tariffs in place on Mexico and Canada tomorrow, though it apparently won’t be a full pause.
“I think he’s gonna figure out, you do more and I’ll meet you in the middle some way, and we’re gonna probably be announcing that tomorrow,” says Lutnick.
Alongside Trump’s upcoming 25 percent auto tariffs, chips will see tariffs as well. In response to a reporter’s question about tariffs on pharma and chips (thanks, C-SPAN):
It’ll be 25% and higher, and it’ll go very substantially higher over the course of a year, but we want to give them time to come in because, as you know, when they come into the United States and they have their plant or factory here, there is no tariff. So we want to give them a little bit of a chance.
He’d previously suggested he’d impose 100 percent tariffs on Taiwanese chips, so perhaps he’s slightly backing off. The new tariffs could come as soon as April 2nd. Computers assembled in China will also cost more because of Trump’s 10 percent tariffs on China.
CEO Nirav Patel tells The Verge:
“Because we manufacture Framework Laptops and Mainboards in Taiwan, we have limited impact from the additional recently introduced tariffs. Some of our modules are manufactured in China, so we are taking this into account for future module pricing for US customers in the Framework Marketplace as we also continue to diversify our supply base.”
Acer just announced 10 percent laptop price increases. Framework will announce new mystery products next week.
The president signed an order on Monday imposing 25 percent tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum to the US, CNN reports. The president had said on Sunday that he planned to announce the tariffs.
Donald Trump suspended a 100-year-old law this week that companies shipping online orders directly from China depended on. The de minimis exemption was used as a loophole by Temu, Shein, Amazon, and countless drop shipping operations. Check out my explainer below.
