Trump announces customs from 100 % to imported chips – with exceptions

Donald Trump has threatened chip imports to the USA with tariffs from 100 percent-and showed a way how to avoid it. Companies would have to opt for investments in the United States to be excluded from how the US President said at an appearance with Apple boss Tim Cook.

Trump called the exception to “good news for companies like Apple”. Cook announced shortly before increasing investments in the United States by $ 100 billion. With the money, the production of components is to be expanded in the next four years. Apple had already announced US investments of $ 500 billion in February.

Halver conductor tariffs without exceptions for large providers are likely to increase the prices for electronics in the USA across the bank-because most chips are produced in Asia. Above all, the high-tech chip systems for the iPhone and other smartphones come almost exclusively from Taiwan from the tender TSMC. However, he has already announced investments of $ 165 billion in US factories for some semiconductors.

In Trump’s announcement, industry observers saw good news for many large providers who, thanks to investment commitments, could not be affected. Trump had been prospecting chip tariffs for a long time-and it was not excluded that they simply hit all semiconductors that are not produced in the USA.

Customs threat instead of subsidies

In the USA and Europe, people have been trying to bring more chip production back into the West for years. The previous US President Joe Biden-and subsequently also the EU Commission-rely on subsidies for billions. Trump describes this as a waste of money and sees tariffs as the better way.

The construction of a chip factory devours billions of dollars and takes years. The emigration of the industry to Asia was fueled with decades of subsidies by the governments there.

Glass pane with gold stand for Trump

Apple announced that the group will resolve 20,000 employees in the United States in the coming years, especially in research and development. The investments should also benefit previous US suppliers such as the Corning glass company. In the future, all iPhones and Apple watches are to be equipped with glass from the USA worldwide. The special glass for the first iPhone 2007 came from the Corning Factory in the state of Kentucky.

Cook also brought the US President a souvenir: a round disc corning glass with Apple logo and an inscription. The stand for this comes from the state of Utah-“and it is 24-carat gold,” said the Apple boss. Trump has a soft spot for gold and also had walls in the Oval Office decorated in the White House with a gold decoration.

Trump loosens up with the US production of iPhones

Industry experts emphasize that this is hardly possible for many reasons. Because the majority of the supply chains of the electronics industry shifted to Asia for decades. Cook also emphasized years ago that, unlike in countries like China, the United States would not find enough specialists. An analyst estimated that an iPhone produced in the USA would have to cost around $ 3,500.

Apple originally had iPhones and other devices built in huge factory cities in China. After delivery bottlenecks by Chinese Lockdown measures in Corona pandemic, production in India and Vietnam has also been expanded in recent years. Apple devices such as iPads and Mac computers are currently selling from Vietnam in the United States.

Doubts about the big throw

“I am very skeptical,” said analyst Patrick Moorhead in the US broadcaster CNBC when asked whether Apple will move a significant part of the value chain to the USA. The long -time industry analyst and today’s investor Gene Munster saw a deal in the announcement: “Trump gets the headline and cook is given the tariffs.”