KUALA LUMPUR — From April 2 to “sooner”, US President Donald Trump appears to be bringing forward plans for tariffs on a range of items including semiconductors.
He told a foreign investment summit in Miami Wednesday that tariffs would be imposed “over the next month or sooner”, Bernama-Anadolu Ajansi reported him saying.
The day before, Trump gave April 2 as the deadline to unveil tariffs starting from 25% on semiconductors, pharmaceuticals and auto imports.
At the investment summit yesterday, he did not provide additional details, other than reiterating his plans and stating the new timeframe which would be sooner than April 2.
On Tuesday at his Mar-a-Lago residence, Trump said the tariffs would be “substantially” increased over the course of a year from their introduction.
However, he noted that companies moving their manufacturing operations to the US would not be subjected to these tariffs.
“But we want to give them time to come in, because as you know, when they come into the United States and they have their plant or factory here, there is no tariff. So we want to give them a little bit of a chance,” he said on Tuesday.
US tariffs on semiconductors could have significant implications for Malaysia’s semiconductor industry, particularly in Penang, which is home to more than 350 multinational technology firms. Major companies operating in the state include Intel Corporation, Hewlett-Packard (now Keysight Technologies and Agilent Technologies), Robert Bosch, AMD, Osram Opto Semiconductors, Renesas, Clarion, and Micron. Several Chinese semiconductor firms have also set up operations in Penang.
At the investors’ summit in Miami yesterday, Trump also said he will be working with the Republican Congress to pass the “largest tax cuts” in American history.
“We’re going to dramatically cut taxes for families and for workers and for companies, including no tax on tips and hopefully no tax on Social Security and no tax on overtime,” he added.
Trump also said he will “substantially” cut taxes for all domestic producers of oil and gas.
Meanwhile, AFP reports global stocks under increased pressure on Wednesday after Trump’s latest tariff threat.
European bourses dipped lower on the warning that auto imports would be affected, with carmakers like Mercedes-Benz, BMW and VW losing ground.
Auto firms and semiconductor manufacturers in Japan also felt the heat, sending the Nikkei Index into the red. – February 20, 2025