Chips | Gile: The United States will not immediately impose tariffs on semiconductors

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said that the United States will not immediately impose new tariffs on semiconductors, but protecting the industry through tariffs and promoting the reshoring of chip production back to the U.S. is crucial.

According to reports from foreign media, at the site of Micron Technology’s memory chip factory expansion project in the suburbs of Washington, Greer said that any tariff measures related to the highly anticipated national security investigation under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act—carried out by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to protect the U.S. semiconductor industry—must be implemented in a reasonable, phased manner to promote domestic production.

He said that imposing tariffs on semiconductors is indeed very important, but more important than protecting such facilities is ensuring that tariffs are implemented at the appropriate time and with the appropriate tariff intensity. Tariffs will not be imposed immediately for now; these supply chains are very complex, and over decades, the semiconductor industry has shifted overseas. The government wants to ensure that companies that are currently producing semiconductors are not hit with tariffs immediately, while allowing companies to import a certain amount of products during the reshoring phase. However, he did not specify the exact scale.

Micron said Friday that it has started 1-alpha DRAM wafer production in Manassas, Virginia, which is currently the most advanced memory chip being produced in the United States. The company said in June that it would increase its investment in the U.S. by $30 billion, bringing its planned total investment to up to $200 billion.