Washington, Aug. 15 — U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday he plans to impose tariffs on steel and semiconductor chip imports in the coming weeks, continuing his push to boost domestic manufacturing.
“I’ll be setting tariffs next week and the week after on steel and on, I would say, chips,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Alaska for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He said the duties would start at lower rates to give companies time to ramp up U.S. production before increasing sharply later — a phased approach he has also proposed for pharmaceutical imports.
“I’m going to have a rate that is going to be lower at the beginning — that gives them a chance to come in and build — and very high after a certain period of time,” Trump said, adding that he expects companies will choose to manufacture in the U.S. rather than face steep tariffs.
Trump has reshaped global trade policy with sweeping duties on imports from nearly all countries, targeting industries including automotive and metals. In February, he raised tariffs on steel and aluminum to 25%, later doubling them to 50% in May to encourage domestic production. It remains unclear if the upcoming announcement will include further hikes on those metals.
Last week, Trump said semiconductor imports would face a 100% tariff unless companies committed to building manufacturing facilities in the United States. His latest comments came alongside news that Apple would invest an additional $100 billion in domestic operations.