THE US COMMERCE SECRETARY Howard Lutnick has said that the US will continue implementing various tariffs on countries and goods after pulling back temporarily on a “reciprocal” tariff on some electronic devices imported from China.

The exemptions, published late Friday in a notice by the US Customs and Border Protection office, cover various electronic goods including smartphones and components entering the United States from China, which are currently subject to a staggering additional 145% tariff.

Semiconductors are also excluded from the “baseline” 10-percent tariff on most US trading partners and the added 125-percent levy on China.

Speaking on This Week on ABC News in the US, Lutnick said that although the US had taken a step back, this is a temporary measure and the exempted tariffs will be reinstated within “the next month or two”.

KARL: So you're saying that the big tariffs on things like smartphones and laptops, all those iPhones built in China, that those tariffs are temporarily off but they're gonna be coming right back on in another form in a month or so?

LUTNICK: Correct. That's right. Semiconductors… https://t.co/UrhUwJUHcO

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 13, 2025

“Semiconductors and pharmaceuticals will have a tariff model in order to encourage them to reshore, to be built in America. We need our medicines, and we need semiconductors and our electronics to be built in America.

“We can’t be beholden and rely upon foreign countries for fundamental things that we need. We can’t be relying on China for fundamental things that we need: our medicines and our semiconductors need to be built in America,” Lutnick said.

He added that US President Donald Trump is “on it”, and tariffs will be imposed upon both industries – though whether this will be restricted to China is unclear.

He said that the exemption from tariffs on some electronics is only a temporary measure while Trump is “clarifying that these [tariffs] are not available to be negotiated away by countries”.

On 2 April, or “liberation day”, Ireland breathed a sigh of relief when pharmaceuticals – its biggest export to the US – were exempted from the 20% tariff levied against the EU. Many suspected that despite the concession, the sector would be targeted later.

Lutnick’s comments on pharmaceuticals draw concern that as the Trump Administration continues experimenting with various degrees of tariffs, it will narrow in on the pharmaceutical sector.