Lutnick Signals New Tariffs Tied to Semiconductor Production in the United States

Howard Lutnick has offered a blunt choice to semiconductor companies: build in the United States and avoid tariffs, or pay for access to what he called the world’s greatest market.

Speaking to CNBC on Sept. 2 during a G20 innovation ministers’ meeting in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, the U.S. commerce secretary said future semiconductor tariffs would be “targeted and thoughtful.” He said companies that produce in the United States would not pay tariffs, while those that do not should be prepared to pay to enter the U.S. market.

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targeted and thoughtful

The planned policy would link tariff relief to investment in U.S. production facilities. Lutnick pointed to an arrangement under which companies producing innovative medicines in the United States and following most-favored-nation drug pricing receive tariff relief. “You should expect something like that in semiconductors,” he said.

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Basically, if you produce here, you pay no tariff. But if you don't produce here, you better be prepared to pay a price to get into the greatest market in the world.

The measures could reach beyond chips themselves. Potential targets include data-center servers and finished consumer products such as laptops and game consoles. President Donald Trump began imposing a 25% tariff on some advanced semiconductors, including Nvidia’s H200 artificial-intelligence chip, in January. The White House has also said it could apply broad tariffs to imported chips and derivative products while creating a tariff-offset program to encourage U.S. manufacturing.

Lutnick cited Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s investment in Arizona and Micron’s planned U.S. memory production facilities. He claimed companies have committed about $1.2 trillion to semiconductor production in the United States. He also said Taiwan had promised $500 billion in investment and loan guarantees for advanced U.S. manufacturing under a U.S.-Taiwan trade agreement, with another $20 billion to $30 billion in planned investment expected to be announced the following week.

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All companies know that it is coming.