Washington (Reuters) -Smartphones and computers that were removed Friday from the list of products subject to customs duties of 145% imposed by the United States on China is not “exempt”, but now taxed at the rate of 20%, Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social network on Sunday.
The American president came to the pressing demand on Business as Apple on Friday, whose production comes largely from China, announcing that the enormous customs rights imposed in Beijing would not immediately concern computers and smartphones.
But he said on Sunday that it did not mean that they escaped any customs rights.
Instead, they are subject to the 20% customs duties that Donald Trump initially imposed on Chinese products in the name of a supposed lack of cooperation in Beijing in the fight against fentanyl traffic, an opioid who wreaks havoc in the United States.
The return to what Donald Trump seems to consider as a floor rate is also only temporary because computers, smartphones and other electronic products will also be the subject of distinct customs rights, of which the US trade secretary said on Sunday that they would be set up in about a month.
Howard Lunick said on the program “This Week” of the ABC television channel that the rights imposed on these products at the end of a “national security” survey would be revealed at the same time as those that will apply to semiconductors.
The Secretary of Commerce has also repeated that the pharmaceutical sector would also be the subject of separate customs duties, which should for their part be announced “in a month or two”.
(Doina Chiacu and Costas Pitas; Tangi Salaün)
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