Commerce Secretary Lutnick says tariff exemptions for electronics are only temporary

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday that the administration's decision Friday night to exempt a range of electronic devices from tariffs implemented earlier this month was only a temporary reprieve, with the secretary announcing that those items would be subject to "semiconductor tariffs" that will likely come in "a month or two."

"All those products are going to come under semiconductors, and they're going to have a special focus type of tariff to make sure that those products get reshored. We need to have semiconductors, we need to have chips, and we need to have flat panels -- we need to have these things made in America. We can't be reliant on Southeast Asia for all of the things that operate for us," Lutnick told "This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl.

He continued, "So what [President Donald Trump's] doing is he's saying they're exempt from the reciprocal tariffs, but they're included in the semiconductor tariffs, which are coming in probably a month or two. So these are coming soon."

The administration's clarification comes after a U.S. Customs and Border Protection bulletin was posted Friday night outlining key electronics -- smartphones, computers, solar cells, flat-panel TV displays and semiconductor-based storage devices, among others -- would be exempt from the tariffs announced since April 2. That meant those products would not be subject to steep tariffs on Chinese imports, nor the global 10% tariff rate President Donald Trump had imposed.

Lutnick said on "This Week" that the White House will implement "a tariff model in order to encourage" the semiconductor industry, as well as the pharmaceutical industry, to move its business to the United States.

"We can't be beholden and rely upon foreign countries for fundamental things that we need," he said. "So this is not like a permanent sort of exemption. He's just clarifying that these are not available to be negotiated away by countries. These are things that are national security that we need to be made in America."

Here are more highlights from Lutnick's interview

On the status of tariff negotiations with China

Lutnick: I think we've had soft -- uh, the way I would say it is, is "soft entrees," you know, through intermediaries and those kind of comments. But we all expect that the president of the United States and, and President Xi of China will work this out. I am completely confident, as is [Trump], that this will be worked out in a positive, thoughtful and effective way for the United States of America. I mean, Donald Trump has the ball. I want him to have it. He's the right person with it. He knows how to play this game. He knows how to deal with President Xi. This is the right person for the right role, and I am confident this is going to work out with China. Yes, is it in a tough spot now, of course it is, but that'll -- you'll see. All of that energy will sort of decline and will end up in a perfectly reasonable place with China. I'm confident of it.

On VP JD Vance referring to Chinese people as 'peasants'

In a Fox News interview earlier this month, Vance said, "We borrow money from Chinese peasants to buy the things that those Chinese peasants manufacture."

Karl: Did the vice president go off message there? ... I mean, I haven't heard Donald Trump talk that way about the Chinese.

Lutnick: I'm just going to step back and really just leave the vice president to let him defend himself. He knows what he meant, and we all know what he meant, which is that, you know, the Chinese have basically attacked America and ripped us off by, by undercutting our businesses. The government of China assists their businesses to undercut our businesses, drive them out of business and take that manufacturing over to China. It's happened in pharmaceuticals. It's happened in so many industries. ... Imagine if the government of America, the United States of America, was backing your business? I mean, you'd be a killer in the world. So that's what the Chinese have been doing. And finally, Donald Trump is standing up to it.

On Trump saying there would be 'a transition cost and transition problems' with tariffs

Karl: This is going to mean higher prices, isn't it?

Lutnick: I don't necessarily think so. I think the idea is that we can manufacture here in America. As I said, there's a, I saw Panasonic, you know, the battery company, right, Japanese company. They built an amazing factory in Kansas, which they're opening now. ...That is what's coming back to America. You're going to see that production, that, that kind of high tech factor is going to produce things here at very reasonable prices. So I think this is going to work out."

On the constitutionality of Trump imposing tariffs

Karl: The Constitution -- Article I, Section 8 -- makes it very clear that Congress shall have the power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises.... The president has cited this 1977 emergency law that doesn't mention tariffs. So how concerned are you and are you prepared to defend this in court?

Lutnick: The president knows the law. The president's general counsels know the law. They understand this that Congress has passed laws that gave the president the ability to protect our national security. We need to make medicine in America. If you don't think that's national security, you're not thinking it through. We need to make semiconductors in America. We need steel and aluminum in America. We need to manufacture in America. If we just run gigantic trade deficits and sell our soul to the rest of the world, eventually, we are going to be the worker for the rest of the world. We're going to be the thinker for the rest of the world that they're going to manufacture, and if someday they say, "Gee, we're not sending it to you," we'll be nothing. So I think the president has national security in mind, and he's here to protect America.