Semiconductors from China will face a ‘special-focus type of tariff’: Lutnick

I'm joined now by Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick. Secretary Lutnick, thank you for being with us this morning. I really appreciate your time. So let's start with that news. It's my pleasure. Let's start with that news late Friday, this exemption on electronics, smartphones, laptop computers and the like. What's the thinking? Why the exemption? Well, if you remember, over the past couple of months, President Trump has called out pharmaceuticals and semiconductors and autos. He called them sector tariffs, and those are not available for negotiation. They are just going to be part of making sure we reassure the core national security items that need to be made in this country. We need to make medicine in this country. We learned it during covid. We need to make it in this country. We need to make semiconductors because if we don't own semiconductors here, remember all virtually all semiconductors are made now in Taiwan and they're finished in China. It's important that we reassure them. And so the president is going to come out with his policies on semiconductors and pharmaceuticals. They're going to be outside the reciprocal tariffs. And he was just making sure everyone understood that all of these products are outside the reciprocal tariffs and they are going to have their own separate way of being considered. But but but wait a minute. And I'm asking you about the exemption, not about I mean, the notice that went out Friday night saying that electronics, a wide range of electronics, including smartphones, including components used to make microchips, that these are now exempt from the reciprocal tariffs. Why that move? Well, remember, those products are going to be part of the semiconductor sectoral tariffs which are coming. So you're going to see this week there'll be a register in the federal registry. There'll be a notice put out that is different types of work. So we're going to do that. We did that in autos. The president's going to do it for pharmaceuticals and he is going to do it for semiconductors. So all those products are going to come under semiconductors and they're going to have a special focus type of tariff to make sure that those products get reassured. We need to have semiconductors. We need to have chips and we need to have flat panels. We need to have these things made in America. We can't be reliant on Southeast Asia for all of the things that operate for us. So what he's doing is he's saying they're exempt from the reciprocal tariffs, but they're included in the semiconductor tariffs, which are coming in probably a month or two. So these are coming soon. You shouldn't think this is really outside of it. You should really think of it as being included in the semiconductor space, much like pharmaceuticals require special attention and the president is on it. So you're saying that the big tariffs on things like smartphones and laptops, iPhones, all those iPhones built in China, that those tariffs are temporarily off, but they're going to be coming right back on in another form in a month or so? What are you saying? Correct. That's right. Semiconductors and pharmaceuticals will have a tariff model in order to encourage them to reassure to be built in America. We need our medicines and we need semiconductors and our electronics to be built in America. We can't be the hold in and rely upon foreign countries for fundamental things that we need. We can't be relying on China for fundamental things that we need. Our medicines and our semiconductors need to be built in America. Donald Trump is on it. He's calling that out. So you should understand these are included in the semiconductor tariffs that are coming and the pharmaceuticals are coming. Those two areas are coming in the next month or two. So this is not like a permanent sort of exemption. He's just clarifying that these are not available to be negotiated away by countries. These are things that are national security that we need to be made in America. The president's made it clear he wants negotiations with China. Have you had any conversations with your Chinese counterpart? Has there been anything between you and the Chinese? I think we've had soft, the way I would say it is, is soft entrees, you know, through intermediaries and those kind of comments. But we all expect that the president of the United States and President Xi of China will work this out. I am completely confident, as is he, that this will be worked out in a positive, thoughtful and effective way for the United States of America. I mean, Donald Trump has the ball. I want him to have it. He's the right person with it. He knows how to play this game. He knows how to deal with President Xi. This is the right person for the right role. And I am confident this is going to work out with China. Yes. Is it in a tough spot now? Of course it is. But that'll, you'll see. All of that energy will sort of decline and we'll end up in a perfectly reasonable place with China. I'm confident of that. But can I ask you, the president's called President Xi a friend. He said the Chinese are proud people. Can you explain to me what the vice president was saying not long ago when he referred to the Chinese people as peasants? Let me play the sound so you can hear it. We borrow money from Chinese peasants to buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacture. That is not a recipe for economic prosperity. It's not a recipe for low prices. And it's not a recipe for good jobs in the United States of America. Did the vice president go off message there? I mean, he's calling the Chinese peasants. This is something that we heard the Chinese say was ignorant and disrespectful. I mean, I haven't heard Donald Trump talk that way about the Chinese. No, I'm just going to step back and really just leave the vice president to let him defend himself. He knows what he meant and we all know what he meant, which is that, you know, the Chinese have basically attacked America and ripped us off by undercutting our businesses, by the government of China assists their businesses to undercut our businesses, drive them out of business and take that manufacturing over to China. It's happened in pharmaceuticals. It's happened in so many industries. We feel it's steel and aluminum. So many. So the idea is if the government of China is behind their businesses, imagine if the government of America, the United States of America was backing your business. I mean, you'd be a killer in the world. So that's what the Chinese have been doing. And finally, Donald Trump is standing up to it, saying, look, in order to make it fair for American businesses, we have to put a tariff on China to level the playing field, to take their government out of being a competitor. We need to have medicines built in America. We need to have those products here in America because we need them. We can't have a war and be asking China to send over penicillin. It's just it's not reasonable. We can't rely on other countries for semiconductors. We can't rely on other countries for steel and aluminum. These are national security issues. And Donald Trump is going to make sure they're reassured we have the capacity to do it. If you've seen, you know, an auto plant these days, these are beautiful plants. You know, these new modern plants are amazing and the jobs they create for our American workers are amazing jobs. And that's what Donald Trump is focused on, bringing those jobs and those factories back to America and employing American workers. He's on it and he's going to bring them back. The president also said there's going to be a transition cost, transition problems. I mean, we are going to see higher prices in America as well. It's like you can open a factory tomorrow to build iPhones or to make sneakers, shoes. I mean, we we buy a lot of shoes in this country. Ninety nine percent of them are made elsewhere. I mean, are we going to become a nation of cobblers again? I mean, what this is going to mean higher prices, isn't it? I mean, if you've seen I don't necessarily think so. I think the idea is that we can manufacture here in America. As I said, there's I saw Panasonic, you know, the battery company, right? Japanese company. They built an amazing factory in Kansas, which they're opening now. They they put it in the ground when Donald Trump was the president. Just finishing now four thousand new jobs built from what they made deals with the community colleges nearby and all the local community and the local university. They trained people for this four thousand high tech jobs in Kansas. That is what's coming back to America. You're going to see that production, that that kind of high tech factories going to pursue things here at very reasonable prices. So I think this is going to work out. Plus, our farmers are going to finally have access to the world's markets. You know, our farmers have never had the opportunity to sell corn in India. So what's going to happen as they sell more and more products, prices will come down. I mean, Mr. Secretary, it's lower prices. You're going to see lower prices in America on lots of different products. I mean, right now we're seeing them effectively being locked out of a very large market, especially people like soybean farmers in China. But let me ask you about the constitutionality of these tariffs. As you know, the Constitution right there in Article one, Section eight makes it very clear that Congress shall have the power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises. Congress has the power to impose tariffs, not the president. And the president has cited this 1977 emergency law that doesn't mention tariffs. This is a law about sanctions, about seizing foreign assets. So how concerned are you and are you prepared to defend this in court? As you know, there's already at least one court challenge to the constitutionality of these tariffs. The president knows the law. The president's general counsels know the law. They understand this, that Congress has passed laws that gave the president the ability to protect our national security. We need to make medicine in America. If you don't think that's national security, you're not thinking it through. We need to make semiconductors in America. We need steel and aluminum in America. We need to manufacture in America. If we just run gigantic trade deficits and sell our soul to the rest of the world, eventually we are going to be the worker for the rest of the world. We're going to be the thinker for the rest of the world, but they're going to manufacture. And if someday they say, gee, we're not sending it to you, we'll be nothing. So I think the president has national security in mind, and he's here to protect America. We need to reshore these things, and we all know it. It is vital for us to reshore it, and we know it. Mr. Secretary, we're really out of time, but a very quick question. How concerned are you about what's happening to the U.S. dollar? We have seen the dollar having its worst week in three years. There are concerns about a weakening dollar because of all of this uncertainty. How concerned are you about that? I am not. I am not concerned about it. We are focused on our tariff policy. We are focused. We have so many countries coming in to negotiate with us. The president has given us the ability, let's go get these great deals done. And we're on it, and the president's on it, and we're really, really focused on delivering the best thing for the American people. All right. Secretary Howard Lutnick, thank you very much for joining us. Appreciate your time.