Trump’s tariff threatens to revive the American conductors

Silicon Valley allowed sighing on Wednesday when I learned that President Donald Trump Bonanza tariff It included an exemption from semiconductors, which, at least at the present time, will not be subject to higher import duties. But after only three days, some American technology companies may find that the vulnerability creates more problems than it is solved. After announcing the definitions, the White House I published a list One of the products that you say is not affected, and does not include many types of chips -related commodities.

This means that only a small number of American manufacturers will be able to continue to identify the sources of chips without the need for a factor in high import costs. The vast majority of semiconductors that are currently entering the United States are already packed into uncomfortable products, such as graphics processing units (GPU) and servers for training artificial intelligence Models. And manufacturing equipment used by local companies to produce chips in the United States also spared.

“If you are a major product that makes a major investment in the United States, one hundred billion dollars will buy you much less in the next few years than the past few years,” says Martin Chorzma, a senior fellow at the Peterson International Economy Institute.

The US Department of Commerce did not respond to the request for suspension.

Stacy Rachton, chief analyst who covers semiconductor in Bernstein’s research, says the narrow excavation exception will not do little of the broader negative impacts on the industry. Given that most of the semiconductors reach the borders of the United States packed in servers, smartphones and other products, the definitions reach “something on the field from a 40 percent mixed tariff on those things”, referring to the rate of total import fees applied.

Rasgon notes that the semiconductor industry depends heavily on other imports and on the general health of the American economy, because the components they make in many types of consumer products, from cars to refrigerators. He says, “They are vulnerable to kidneys.”

To determine the goods on the definitions, the Trump administration relied on an existing complex system called the HTS tariff schedule (HTS), which organizes millions of different products sold in the American market to digital categories that are compatible with different import rates. The White House document only lists a narrow collection of HTS codes in the semiconductor field that it says exempt from the new definitions.

Nancy Wei, a supply chain analyst at Eurasia Consulting Company, says, for example, graphics processing is coded, for example, as either 8473.30 or 8542.31 in the HTS system. But Trump’s concession applies only to the most advanced graphics processing units in the last 8542.31 category. It also does not cover other symbols of related types of computing devices. NVIDIA DGX systems, a server previously configured with compact graphics processing units designed for artificial intelligence computing tasks, as 8471.50 Company websiteWhich means that it is likely that it is not possible from the definitions.

The separation line between these differences can sometimes be blurry. In 2020, for example, an importer of two GPU models of NVIDIA from the American authorities were requested to clarify the category it considered located. After looking at the matter, customs and US border protection Be determined Graphics processing units belong to the 8473.30 category, which also does not exempt from definitions.