US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that he will announce next set of tariffs on lumber, cars, semiconductors, chips and pharmaceuticals “over next month or sooner”, Reuters reported. Speaking at a conference in Miami, Trump said that he will also announce tariffs on “probably some other things” as well. He did not mention anything further on these tariffs or provide any details.
Since the time Trump took charge as the US President, he has announced a range of tariffs and has repeatedly mentioned imposing levies on imported goods.
Earlier this month, Trump imposed a 10% tariff on imported goods from China and 25% tariff on steel and aluminium. He recently said that he might impose nearly a 25% on auto also.
India’s pharmaceutical and auto industries are also getting ready for these possible tariffs because Trump had repeated his plan to put 25% taxes on imports, which could impact Indian exports.
Trump has often shown his disappointment about what he thinks as an unfair treatment of US car exports in other countries.
For example, the European Union charges a 10% tax on imported cars, which is four times higher than the 2.5% tax the US charges on passenger cars. However, the US imposes a 25% tax on pickup trucks from countries outside Mexico and Canada, making these trucks very profitable for car automakers in Detroit.
His new push for car tariffs is similar to his actions in 2018-19, when a national security study showed that car imports were hurting the US industrial base. Although he had put this idea on hold before, he could now revisit the past report. If these tariffs are applied, they could disrupt global supply chains and increase trade tensions.
On the semiconductor front, even though Indian companies gets orders from US clients, experts think that the proposed tariffs by Trump will not cause any big problems right away. It might also take time for the US to build their own chip factories.