The Trump administration said it will impose new tariffs on chips imported from China due to Beijing’s “unreasonable” pursuit to dominate the industry, but said it would delay the new levies until 2027.
The move, which preserves Trump’s ability to impose the duties, seeks to dial down tensions with Beijing in the face of Chinese export curbs on the rare earth metals that global tech companies rely on and which China controls.
The new tariff rate will be announced at least 30 days in advance, the US Trade Representative said in a release.
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“China’s targeting of the semiconductor industry for dominance is unreasonable and burdens or restricts US commerce, and thus, is actionable,” it said.
The announcement on the new tariffs follows a year-long investigation by Washington into “unfair trade practices” in China’s exports of “legacy,” or older-technology chips to the US, launched by former President Joe Biden’s administration.
Biden already imposed an additional 50% tariff on Chinese semiconductors that started on January 1, 2025.
The chip industry is also awaiting the Trump administration’s decision on a much broader tariff investigation into global chip imports.
That probe, under the country’s national security statute, could heap more tariffs on Chinese semiconductors and a vast array of electronics devices containing them from all countries. US officials have privately said, however, that those levies might not come into effect anytime soon.
Beijing still fuming
Washington’s decision to postpone the current lot of tariffs follows extensive negotiations with Beijing and a meeting between Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in South Korea in October.
The negotiations aimed to delay some of China’s most extensive licensing rules to control exports of rare earths and magnets that are critical to everything from smartphones and wind turbines to electric vehicles and defence systems.
As part of the negotiations, Washington also pushed back a rule to restrict US tech exports to units of already-blacklisted Chinese companies. It has begun reviewing licences for Chinese firms that were looking to purchase Nvidia’s second-most powerful AI chips, the H200.
That move has brought the Trump administration under fire from China hawks in the US who fear the chips could supercharge China’s military.
Still, despite the latest plans delaying new tariffs, Beijing’s registered an angry opposition to the planned 2027 levies.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington said it was opposed to any tariffs at all.”
“To politicise, instrumentalise and weaponise trade and tech issues and destabilise the global industrial and supply chains will benefit no one and will eventually backfire,” it said in a statement to Reuters. “We will take all measures necessary to firmly safeguard our lawful rights and interests,” it added.
Meanwhile, the Chinese foreign ministry said it “firmly opposed” Washington’s “indiscriminate use of tariffs and unreasonable suppression of China”.
It said it will “take corresponding measures to safeguard rights and interests” if the US doesn’t “correct its wrong practices.”
- Reuters, with additional editing by Vishakha Saxena
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