Chip And Pharma Tariffs to be Announced Next Week: Trump

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday his administration would be announcing separate tariffs on computer chips and imported pharmaceuticals next week.

In an interview with CNBC, he said: “We’re going to be announcing on semiconductors and chips … because we want them made in the United States.”

The bulk of the world’s advanced chips are made in Taiwan, although TSMC, the island’s top chipmaker, has set up production facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, and design service centres in Austin, Texas, and San Jose, California.

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TSMC makes chips for Nvidia, Apple, Qualcomm and AMD in Taiwan, and demand for them has shot up as use of semiconductors has spread to many sectors, including the boom in artificial intelligence.

Trump also said tariffs would be imposed on pharmaceuticals – medical drugs – imported from abroad, which would be scaled up over 12 to 18 months.

“We’ll be putting an initially small tariff on pharmaceuticals, but in one year — one and a half years, maximum — it’s going to go to 150% and then it’s going to go to 250% because we want pharmaceuticals made in our country,” he said.

“I have the best poll numbers I’ve ever had,” because “people love the tariffs,” Trump said in the interview, despite other polls showing his approval rating has fallen.

Trump said he also hopes to have a trade deal with China before the end of the year. He is expected to meet President Xi Jinping somewhere in Asia when that is done, perhaps on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in October.

He reportedly told Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim recently that he would attend the summit, along with President Xi Jinping and leaders of the 10 Southeast Asian nations.