Trump announces 100% tariffs on imports of semiconductors

United States President Donald Trump said on Thursday (Aug. 7) that the US will soon be imposing a 100 per cent tariff on semiconductor imports into the country.

However, American companies such as Apple would be exempt due to fresh commitments to invest in infrastructure in the US.

100 per cent but...

During his remarks, Trump spoke at length about the state of US manufacturing before pivoting to declare his intention to impose a "very large tariff on chips and semiconductors".

"We’ll be putting a tariff of approximately 100 per cent on chips and semiconductors," Trump said.

The caveat, however, was that companies who have "committed to build" in the US would be exempt from the tariffs.

That means companies, such as Apple, will be exempt if they have made plans to invest in manufacturing.

However, if these companies renege on their commitment, the tariffs will be retroactively applied on them.

"If, for some reason, you say you're building and you don't build, then we go back and we add it up, it accumulates, and we charge you at a later date, you have to pay, and that's a guarantee," the US President said.

According to Reuters, Trump's remarks were not a formal tariff announcement.

It is not clear which countries or how many chips will be affected, Reuters added.

'They're coming home'

Trump's comments were made during a White House visit by Apple CEO Tim Cook to announce a fresh US$100 billion investment plan.

The plan will see Apple commit to building infrastructure such as server manufacturing facilities and data centres in the US.

After announcing the semiconductor tariffs, Trump continued speaking about the state of manufacturing in the US.

"I think the chip companies are all coming back home," Trump said.

"You know, we started with Intel, and gradually Intel was just taken over the coals, they were taken to the cleaners frankly. [They] moved to other places, in particular, Taiwan," Trump commented.

According to Politico, the US imported US$60 billion (S$77 billion) worth of semiconductors in 2024 with US$50 billion (S$64.2 billion) from Asia alone.

Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, the European Union, Thailand, South Korea and Japan were leading suppliers, Politico wrote.

US semiconductor imports from China totaled US$2 billion (S$2.5 billion).

In attendance at the meeting were also US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Semiconductors make up 1.4 per cent of S'pore's exports to US

The semiconductor industry in Singapore amounts to 6 per cent of Singapore's GDP, according to an article by the Economic Development Board (EDB).

According to a response from Singapore Customs on askgov.sg, semiconductors are exempted from baselines tariffs.

The US currently imposes a baseline tariff of 10 per cent on Singapore imports.

Semiconductors represented 1.4 per cent of Singapore's domestic exports to the US in 2024, according to Monetary Authority of Singapore's (MAS) Macroeconomic Review from July 2025.

"The possible imposition of product-specific tariffs on semiconductors and electronic goods could further weigh on the [macroeconomic] outlook," MAS wrote in the review.

Related story

Top image via Donald Trump / Facebook, Canva