The United States announced on Tuesday that it will impose tariffs on chip imports from China, in response to Beijing’s “unreasonable” pursuit of dominance in the electronic chip industry. However, it will delay this measure until June 2027.
According to a statement, the tariff value will be announced at least 30 days prior to implementation. This follows a year-long investigation into Chinese chip imports to the United States.
The statement said: “China’s targeting of the semiconductor industry for dominance is unreasonable, burdens or restricts American commerce, and therefore warrants legal action.”
Easing Tensions
This comes as efforts are made to ease tensions with Beijing, amid Chinese restrictions on exports of rare earth minerals that global technology companies rely on and which China controls.
As part of negotiations with China to delay those restrictions, a previous decision to restrict U.S. technology exports to subsidiaries of already blacklisted Chinese companies was rolled back. A review has also begun that could result in the first shipments of Nvidia’s second-most powerful AI chips to China, despite serious concerns raised by China hawks who fear these chips could significantly enhance Chinese military capabilities.
The chip manufacturing sector awaits the results of another investigation into chip imports that could affect Chinese goods and lead to tariffs on a wide range of technologies. However, officials have privately indicated that these tariffs may not be imposed anytime soon.
