President Donald Trump announced he would be setting tariffs on steel and semiconductor chips within the next two weeks as he spoke to the White House press pool aboard Air Force One on Friday.
“I’ll be setting tariffs next week and the week after on steel and on, I would say, chips. Chips and Semiconductors– we’ll be setting sometime next week, week after,” Trump said.
Trump said he will initially set these tariff rates lower to give the opportunity for companies to build in the United States, though he did not announce any specific rates. Last week, he told reporters he planned to set “approximately 100%” tariffs on chips and semiconductors.
“I’m going to have a rate that is going to be lower in the beginning – then that gives them the chance to come in and build – and very high after a certain period of time. And if they don’t build here, they have to pay a very high tariff, which doesn’t work, so they’ll have to come in and build,” Trump said on Friday.
TRUMP TARIFFS GO INTO EFFECT AS US BROKERS NEW TRADE DEALS
Canada, Brazil, South Korea, Mexico, and Germany are the top source countries for U.S. imports of steel, according to April 2025 data from the American Iron and Steel Institute. Taiwan, Malaysia, Israel, South Korea, and Ireland are some of the countries that import the most semiconductor chips to the U.S., according to The Motley Fool.
The Trump administration announced new tariffs that went into effect last week after the extended trade deal deadline. The European Union reached a trade deal with the administration before the deadline to swerve a 30% tariff on most imports to the U.S. in favor of a lower 15% tariff.