trump tariffs

Taiwan rejects Trump’s demand to shift 50% of chip manufacturing into US

Policy, Taiwan, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, trump tariffs / Beth Washington / October 1, 2025

In August, Trump claimed that chip tariffs could be as high as 100 percent while promising to exempt any tech companies that have committed to moving significantly more manufacturing into the US.

Since then, sources familiar with the investigation told Reuters that “the Trump administration is considering imposing tariffs on foreign electronic devices based on the number of chips in each one.” Under that potential plan, the tariff charged would be “equal to a percentage of the estimated value of the product’s chip content,” sources suggested.

Some expect that companies like the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) may be exempted from these tariffs, based on a pledge to invest $100 billion into US chip manufacturing.

However, sources told Reuters that the Commerce Department has weighed offering “a dollar-for-dollar exemption based on investment in US-based manufacturing only if a company moves half its production to the US.” TSMC’s total market value is more than $1 trillion, so the US may seek more investments if the campaign to move half of Taiwan’s chip production into the US fails.

Brzytwa told Ars that tech companies are already struggling to do the math from Trump’s tariff stacking. And those headaches will likely continue. At a meeting last week with chip industry executives, Lutnick confirmed that Trump plans to use tariffs to push tech companies to buy US-made chips, The New York Times reported.

If those plans go through, companies would be expected to buy half their chips in the US, earning credits “for each dollar spent on American semiconductors, which they can use against what they spend on foreign semiconductors,” the Times reported.

Any company not maintaining “a 1:1 ratio over time would have to pay a tariff,” sources told The Wall Street Journal. For companies like Apple, the policy would require tracking every chip used in every device to ensure a perfect match. But there would likely be an initial grace period, allowing companies to adjust to the new policy as the US increases its domestic chip supply chain, the WSJ reported. And chipmakers like TSMC could potentially benefit, the WSJ reported, possibly gaining leverage in the market if it increases its US manufacturing ahead of rivals.

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Taiwan pressured to move 50% of chip production to US or lose protection

Donald Trump, Howard Lutnick, Policy, semiconductors, Taiwan, trump administration, trump tariffs, TSMC, us-china trade war / 9u50fv / September 29, 2025

The Trump administration is pressuring Taiwan to rapidly move 50 percent of its chip production into the US if it wants ensured protection against a threatened Chinese invasion, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told NewsNation this weekend.

In the interview, Lutnick noted that Taiwan currently makes about 95 percent of chips used in smartphones and cars, as well as in critical military defense technology. It’s bad for the US, Lutnick said, that “95 percent of our chips are made 9,000 miles away,” while China is not being “shy” about threats to “take” Taiwan.

Were the US to lose access to Taiwan’s supply chain, the US could be defenseless as its economy takes a hit, Lutnick alleged, asking, “How are you going to get the chips here to make your drones, to make your equipment?”

“The model is: if you can’t make your own chips, how can you defend yourself, right?” Lutnick argued. That’s why he confirmed his “objective” during his time in office is to shift US chip production from 2 percent to 40 percent. To achieve that, he plans to bring Taiwan’s “whole supply chain” into the US, a move experts have suggested could take much longer than a single presidential term to accomplish.

In 2023, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang forecast that the US was “somewhere between a decade and two decades away from supply chain independence,” emphasizing that “it’s not a really practical thing for a decade or two.”

Deal is “not natural for Taiwan”

Lutnick acknowledged this will be a “herculean” task. “Everybody tells me it’s impossible,” he said.

To start with, Taiwan must be convinced that it’s not getting a raw deal, he noted, explaining that it’s “not natural for Taiwan” to mull a future where it cedes its dominant role as a global chip supplier, as well as the long-running protections it receives from allies that comes with it.

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Volvo says it has big plans for South Carolina factory

Cars, trump tariffs, volvo / Beth Washington / September 23, 2025

Volvo is undergoing something of a restructuring. The automaker wants to be fully electric by 2040, but for that to happen, it needs to remain in business until then. Earlier this year, that meant layoffs, but today, Volvo announced it has big plans for its North American factory in Ridgeville, South Carolina.

Volvo has been making cars in South Carolina since 2017, starting with the S60 sedan—a decision I always found slightly curious given that US car buyers had already given up on sedans by that point in favor of crossovers and SUVs. S60 production ended last summer, and these days, the plant builds the large electric EX90 SUV and the related Polestar 3.

The company is far from fully utilizing the Ridgeville plant, though, which has an annual capacity of 150,000 vehicles. When the turnaround plan was first announced this July, Volvo revealed it would start building the next midsize XC60 in South Carolina—a wise move given the Trump tariffs and the importance of this model to Volvo’s sales figures here.

Now, the OEM says it will add another model to the mix, with a new, yet-to-be-named hybrid due before 2030.

“Our investment plans once again reinforce our long-term commitment to the US market and our manufacturing operations in South Carolina,” said Håkan Samuelsson, chief executive. “This year, we celebrate 70 years of Volvo Cars presence in the United States. We have sold over 5 million cars there and plan to sell many more in years to come,” he said.

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No Nissan Ariya for model-year 2026 as automaker cancels imports

Cars, Nissan Ariya, trump tariffs / Kelly Newman / September 18, 2025

The news follows a report earlier this week that Nissan has cut back Leaf production at Tochigi for the next few months as a result of a battery shortage.

And as we learned in July, the car company had already cut production plans for the Leaf due to restrictions on Chinese rare-earth exports. Additionally, it has postponed plans to build a pair of EVs that were scheduled to go into production in Canton, Mississippi, only months after canceling another pair of EVs meant to be built there.

“Nissan is pausing production of the MY26 Ariya for the U.S. market and reallocating resources to support the launch of the all-new 2026 Leaf, which will have the lowest starting MSRP out of all new EVs currently on sale in the U.S. Ariya remains available in the U.S. through existing inventory, and Nissan will continue to support Ariya owners with service, parts, and warranty coverage,” the company told us in a statement.

This story was updated with a statement from Nissan.

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China blocks sale of Nvidia AI chips

AI, china, NVIDIA, Policy, syndication, trump tariffs / Mike M. / September 17, 2025

“The message is now loud and clear,” said an executive at one of the tech companies. “Earlier, people had hopes of renewed Nvidia supply if the geopolitical situation improves. Now it’s all hands on deck to build the domestic system.”

Nvidia started producing chips tailored for the Chinese market after former US President Joe Biden banned the company from exporting its most powerful products to China, in an effort to rein in Beijing’s progress on AI.

Beijing’s regulators have recently summoned domestic chipmakers such as Huawei and Cambricon, as well as Alibaba and search engine giant Baidu, which also make their own semiconductors, to report how their products compare against Nvidia’s China chips, according to one of the people with knowledge of the matter.

They concluded that China’s AI processors had reached a level comparable to or exceeding that of the Nvidia products allowed under export controls, the person added.

The Financial Times reported last month that China’s chipmakers were seeking to triple the country’s total output of AI processors next year.

“The top-level consensus now is there’s going to be enough domestic supply to meet demand without having to buy Nvidia chips,” said an industry insider.

Nvidia introduced the RTX Pro 6000D in July during Huang’s visit to Beijing, when the US company also said Washington was easing its previous ban on the H20 chip.

China’s regulators, including the CAC, have warned tech companies against buying Nvidia’s H20, asking them to justify having purchased them over domestic products, the FT reported last month.

The RTX Pro 6000D, which the company has said could be used in automated manufacturing, was the last product Nvidia was allowed to sell in China in significant volumes.

Alibaba, ByteDance, the CAC, and Nvidia did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Additional reporting by Eleanor Olcott in Zhengzhou.

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Ars Live: CTA policy expert explains why tariff stacking is a nightmare

chip tariffs, consumer technology, consumer technology association, Policy, semiconductor, trump tariffs / DJ Henderson / September 16, 2025

Earlier this month, Ars spoke with the Consumer Technology Association’s vice president of international trade, Ed Brzytwa, to check in and see how tech firms have navigated Donald Trump’s unpredictable tariff regimes so far.

Brzytwa has led CTA’s research helping tech firms prepare for Trump’s trade war, but during our talk, he confirmed that “the reality has been a lot more difficult and far worse, because of not just the height of the tariffs, but the variability, the tariffs on, tariffs off.”

Our discussion with Ed Brzytwa. Click here for transcript.

Currently, every tech company is in a “slightly different position,” depending on its specific supply chains, he explained. However, until semiconductor tariffs are announced, “it’s impossible” for any tech company to make the kind of long-term plans that could help keep consumer prices low as Trump’s negotiations with foreign partners and investigations into various products drag on, Brzytwa said.

Ahead of the busy holiday shopping season, Brzytwa suggested that many companies may be prepared to maintain prices, based on front-loading of inventory by firms in anticipation of more complicated tariff regimes coming. But some companies, notably in the video game industry, have already begun warning of tariff-related price hikes, Brzytwa noted, and for others likely delaying for as long as they can, there remains a question of “what happens when that inventory disappears?”

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Will TikTok go dark Wednesday? Trump claims deal with China avoids shutdown.

bytedance, china, Donald Trump, national security, Policy, tiktok, trump administration, trump tariffs, us-china trade war / Mike M. / September 15, 2025

According to Bessent, China agreed to “commercial terms” and “technical details” of a deal “between two parties,” but Xi and Trump still needed to discuss the terms—as well as possibly China’s demands to ease export controls on chips and other high-tech goods—before the deal can be finalized, Reuters reported.

ByteDance, TikTok’s current owner, which in the past has opposed the sale, did not immediately respond to Ars’ request to comment.

While experts told Reuters that finalizing the TikTok deal this week could be challenging, Trump seems confident. On Truth Social, the US president boasted that talks with China have been going “very well” and claimed that TikTok users will soon be “very happy.”

“A deal was also reached on a ‘certain’ company that young people in our Country very much wanted to save,” Trump said, confirming that he would speak to Xi on Friday and claiming that their relationship “remains a very strong one!!!”

China accuses US of “economic coercion”

However, China’s Ministry of Commerce spokesperson on Monday continued to slam US export controls and tariffs that are frustrating China. The spokesperson suggested that those trade restrictions “constitute the containment and suppression of China’s development of high-tech industries,” like advanced computer chips and artificial intelligence, NBC News reported.

“This is a typical act of unilateral bullying and economic coercion,” the spokesperson said, indicating it may even be viewed as a retaliation violating the temporary truce.

Rather than committing to de-escalate tensions, both countries have recently taken fresh jabs in the trade war. On Monday, China announced two probes into US semiconductors, as well as an antitrust ruling against Nvidia and “an anti-discrimination probe into US measures against China’s chip sector,” NBC News reported.

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Parts shortage is the latest problem to hit General Motors production

Cars, General Motors, trump tariffs / Kelly Newman / September 15, 2025

General Motors will temporarily lay off workers at its Wentzville assembly plant in Missouri. According to a letter sent to employees by the head of the plant and the head of the local union, a shortage of parts is the culprit, and as a result, the factory will see “a temporary layoff from September 29–October 19.” The plant is about 45 minutes west of St. Louis and employs more than 4,000 people to assemble midsize pickup trucks for Chevrolet and GMC, as well as full-size vans.

Not every employee will be laid off—”skilled trades, stamping, body shop, final process and those groups that support these departments” may still have work.

Government policies

Earlier this month, GM revealed plans to reduce the number of electric vehicles it builds, despite having a bumper month in August that saw it sell very nearly twice as many EVs as Ford. In that case, it blamed weak demand for electric vehicles, no doubt forecasting what the end of the IRS clean vehicle tax credit will do to the market.

US President Donald Trump made no secret of his dislike for EVs during his campaign, and since taking office in January his administration has worked hard to remove incentives for private and commercial buyers, as well as attacking subsidies for manufacturing and, most recently, the mass arrest of hundreds of South Korean workers setting up a battery factory in Georgia, meant to supply Hyundai’s nearby Metaplant, which builds the Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 9 EVs.

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Trump’s trade and environment policies are a disaster for carmakers

Cars, EV adoption, trump tariffs / Beth Washington / August 6, 2025

General Motors blamed Trump’s tariffs for costing it $1.1 billion in Q2 and as much as $5 billion by the end of the year. And while the new anti-EV adoption policies are yet to fully bite, it’s clear they’ve motivated some action inside the GM boardroom. Although GM CEO Mary Barra wrote to investors that the company believes “the long-term future is profitable electric vehicle production,” she followed by explaining that GM’s flexible factories will help it succeed in a world where EPA fuel economy targets are no longer a thing. That’s probably why GM added 300,000 more units of capacity for “high margin light-duty pickups, full-size SUVs and crossovers.”

Ford said that the tariffs could cost it as much as $2 billion this year, despite it making more actual vehicles in the US than any other automaker. That’s because it has to pay the US government to import raw materials like steel and aluminum, as well as components and subassemblies.

Foreign automakers are also feeling the effects, given the importance—until now, at least—of the US car buyer. Stellantis, which owns the Jeep and Ram brands, said it had already lost $2.7 billion this year due to tariffs, although the automaker stands to benefit in the coming years from the gutting of fleet fuel efficiency fines.

Aston Martin may benefit from a lower 10 percent tariff for UK-made cars, but it described the process as “extremely disruptive,” and although it has now restarted shipping cars to America, it issued a profit warning last week.

BMW is among the less badly hurt; although its operating margin fell to 5.4 percent, this was within its expectations. Mercedes had to warn investors to expect less this year, and it says the US will become a less-important market for the company, which plans to make up for it with growth in China. Volkswagen Group said the tariffs have cost it $1.5 billion so far this year, and it has also revised down its forecasts for the rest of the year.

Although Porsche announced record deliveries in North America just a week ago, its operating profit was a third of that a year ago. “In the US, import tariffs are also putting huge pressure on our business. Looking ahead, the movement of the dollar could also have an impact. In addition, the transformation to electric mobility is progressing more slowly than expected overall, with consequences for the supplier network,” said Porsche and VW Group CEO Oliver Blume.

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Trump suspends trade loophole for cheap online retailers globally

Amazon, de minimis, Donald Trump, e-commerce, Policy, shein, tariffs, temu, trump tariffs, us-china trade war / Mike M. / July 31, 2025

But even Amazon may struggle to shift its supply chain as the de minimis exemption is eliminated for all countries. In February, the e-commerce giant “projected lower-than-expected sales and operating income for its first quarter,” which it partly attributed to “unpredictability in the economy.” A DataWeave study concluded at the end of June that “US prices for China-made goods on Amazon” were rising “faster than inflation,” Reuters reported, likely due to “cost shocks” currently “rippling through the retail supply chain.” Other non-Chinese firms likely impacted by this week’s order include eBay, Etsy, TikTok Shop, and Walmart.

Amazon did not respond to Ars’ request to comment but told Reuters last month that “it has not seen the average prices of products change up or down appreciably outside of typical fluctuations.”

Trump plans to permanently close loophole in 2027

Trump has called the de minimis exemption a “big scam,” claiming that it’s a “catastrophic loophole” used to “evade tariffs and funnel deadly synthetic opioids as well as other unsafe or below-market products that harm American workers and businesses into the United States.”

To address what Trump has deemed “national emergencies” hurting American trade and public health, he has urgently moved to suspend the loophole now and plans to permanently end it worldwide by July 1, 2027.

American travelers will still be able to “bring back up to $200 in personal items” and receive “bona fide gifts valued at $100 or less” duty-free, but a fixed tariff rate of between $80 to $200 per item will be applied to many direct-to-consumer shipments until Trump finishes negotiating trade deals with the rest of America’s key trade partners. As each deal is theoretically closed, any shipments will be taxed according to tariff rates of their country of origin. (Those negotiations are supposed to conclude by tomorrow, but so far, Trump has only struck deals with the European Union, Japan, and South Korea.)

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Trump caving on Nvidia H20 export curbs may disrupt his bigger trade war

AI, AI chips, Donald Trump, frontier ai, h20 chips, Howard Lutnick, Jensen Huang, NVIDIA, Policy, semiconductors, tariffs, trump tariffs, us-china trade war / 9u50fv / July 29, 2025

But experts seem to fear that Trump isn’t paying enough attention to how exports of US technology could threaten to not only supercharge China’s military and AI capabilities but also drain supplies that US firms need to keep the US at the forefront of AI innovation.

“More chips for China means fewer chips for the US,” experts said, noting that “China’s biggest tech firms, including Tencent, ByteDance, and Alibaba,” have spent $16 billion on bulk-ordered H20 chips over the past year.

Meanwhile, “projected data center demand from the US power market would require 90 percent of global chip supply through 2030, an unlikely scenario even without China joining the rush to buy advanced AI chips,” experts said. If Trump doesn’t intervene, one of America’s biggest AI rivals could even end up driving up costs of AI chips for US firms, they warned.

“We urge you to reverse course,” the letter concluded. “This is not a question of trade. It is a question of national security.”

Trump says he never heard of Nvidia before

Perhaps the bigger problem for Trump, national security experts suggest, would be if China or other trade partners perceive the US resolve to wield export controls as a foreign policy tool to be “weakened” by Trump reversing course on H20 controls.

They suggested that Trump caving on H20 controls could even “embolden China to seek additional access concessions” at a time when some analysts suggest that China may already have an upper hand in trade negotiations.

The US and China are largely expected to extend a 90-day truce following recent talks in Stockholm, Reuters reported. Anonymous sources told the South China Morning Post that the US may have already agreed to not impose any new tariffs or otherwise ratchet up the trade war during that truce, but that remains unconfirmed, as Trump continues to warn that chip tariffs are coming soon.

Trump has recently claimed that he thinks he may be close to cementing a deal with China, but it appears likely that talks will continue well into the fall. A meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping probably won’t be scheduled until late October or early November, Reuters reported.

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Trump cuts tariff on UK cars; American carmakers not happy about it

Cars, trump tariffs / 9u50fv / May 9, 2025

The British car industry got a big break from US President Donald Trump yesterday afternoon. Trump and UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer have agreed to a bilateral trade agreement that cuts tariffs on a range of imports from the UK, including pharmaceuticals, aluminum and steel, and cars.

Now, the first 100,000 cars that come to the US from the UK will only be subject to a 10 percent tariff rather than the 27.5 percent they have been under since the start of this trade war in April.

“The car industry is vital to the UK’s economic prosperity, sustaining 250,000 jobs,” said Jaguar Land Rover CEO Adrian Mardell. “We warmly welcome this deal which secures greater certainty for our sector and the communities it supports. We would like to thank the UK and US Governments for agreeing this deal at pace and look forward to continued engagement over the coming months,” Mardell said.

As it turns out, 100,000 is almost as many cars as the UK exported to the US last year—about 102,000 last year. Not every car that wears a British brand’s name is made there, but Aston Martin, Bentley, Jaguar Land Rover, McLaren, Mini, and Rolls-Royce all manufacture cars in the UK.

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