A 90-day extension of a US-China tariff truce is likely, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Thursday, the most concrete signal from the US side about moving the deadline since bilateral talks concluded in Stockholm last week.
“I think we’re going to leave that to the trade team and to the president to make those decisions, but it feels like likely that they’re going to come to an agreement and extend that for another 90 days,” he said on Fox News when asked if the truce, which is set to expire on Tuesday, would be extended.
Lutnick made similar comments last week while the talks were under way July 28 and 29, noting that a 90-day extension was a likely outcome of negotiations. But after the talks, only the Chinese side declared a consensus on extending the pause on tariff increases.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a CBS interview last Friday that the two sides were “working towards” an extension.
The commerce secretary spoke hours after US President Donald Trump’s sweeping worldwide tariffs came into effect on Thursday, imposing at least 10 per cent on imports from about 90 countries, after multiple rounds of delays since they were first announced in April.
Since April, the US has gradually increased tariffs on Chinese imports to as much as 145 per cent. In retaliation, Beijing imposed tariffs of up to 125 per cent and introduced export controls on strategic raw materials.
In May, both sides agreed in Geneva to a 90-day suspension of new tariffs. A second round of talks followed in June in London, where an understanding to ease export controls on US semiconductors and Chinese rare earth minerals was struck, before the most recent round in Stockholm.
Still, much appears in flux. On Wednesday Trump floated the idea that China could be subject to punitive tariffs for purchasing Russian oil, hours after he imposed 25 per cent tariffs on India for doing so. White House trade adviser Peter Navarro suggested on the same day that such action was unlikely because the higher duties might hurt the US.
On Thursday, Lutnick also elaborated on Trump’s Wednesday announcement that companies that manufacture semiconductors within the US would be exempt from 100 per cent tariffs on the chips they import, emphasising the role of an auditor in the process.
“If you commit to build in America during his term, and if you file it with the Commerce Department, and if your auditor oversees you building it all the way through, then he will allow you to import your chips while you’re building without a tariff,” Lutnick said on Fox.
Lutnick’s remarks came as Trump continues his pressure on the semiconductor industry, posting on Truth Social on Thursday that Lip-Bu Tan, the chief of California-based Intel, should resign due to being “highly conflicted”.
Earlier in the week, US Senator Tom Cotton, Republican of Arkansas, sent a letter to the chair of Intel’s board contending that Tan’s ties to Chinese companies could pose a national security threat. - SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
