(May 23): The Trump administration continues to weigh US tariffs on imported semiconductors to boost domestic chip manufacturing, though there are no immediate plans to impose any new levies, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said.
Speaking at an event marking the expansion of a Micron Technology Inc memory chip plant in northern Virginia, Greer stressed the importance of using import duties to bring chip production back to the US. At the same time, he made clear that there was “not an immediate” tariff coming “tomorrow or next week”, adding that discussions continue with the industry about the timing and scope.
“We want to make sure we do it on the right timeline and in the right amount, so that we can facilitate the reshoring,” Greer said.
Greer’s remarks reinforced the administration’s commitment to pursuing chip tariffs following the Commerce Department’s conclusion in January that US reliance on imported semiconductors posed a risk to national security. At the time, US President Donald Trump held off on duties and ordered US officials to negotiate with major exporters, reserving the option of wider chip tariffs and an offset programme depending on the outcome of talks.
The administration’s approach to chip tariffs remains unchanged following Trump’s meeting in Beijing last week with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, Greer said. That work includes an effort to come up with offsets to spare chipmakers that are building manufacturing plants in the US.
“The expectation is that you need to build here, and there will be some kind of factor or multiplier on ‘if you are building here, then that allows you to import X amount during that reshoring phase’,” Greer said. “We are committed to what Micron’s doing, and to what other peers in the semiconductor industry are doing.”
See also: Samsung chip workers face colleagues’ resentment over bonus deal
Micron has pledged to invest US$200 billion ($256 billion) on US manufacturing, research and development, including more than US$2 billion on upgrades to the Virginia facility. The Boise, Idaho-based company also plans tens of billions of dollars of investments in additional plants in its home state as well as upstate New York.
In an interview with Bloomberg Television at the event, Micron chief executive officer Sanjay Mehrotra said the company’s US expansion plans would add capacity aimed at meeting a surge in demand for memory chips driven by the artificial intelligence boom.
“We see this shortage continuing well beyond the 2026 time frame,” Mehrotra said. “Micron is working hard with our customers, working also on the long-term supply agreements with our customers, to really ensure that they have predictability with supply.”
See also: Spain says EU talks with Anthropic over Mythos concerns are stalled
That flood of demand for memory products has sent shares of Micron up more than 163% this year. It’s also intensified focus on the company’s rivals in South Korea: Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc.
All three are under pressure to build more production in the US. At a similar event in January for the groundbreaking on Micron’s planned factory outside Syracuse, New York, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick warned that the South Korean companies risked tariffs of up to 100% if they failed to do more to expand production in the US.
Samsung is building a logic chip facility in Austin and SK Hynix is planning a packaging plant in Indiana, but only Micron produces memory wafers within US borders. Mehrotra said on Friday that Micron’s boost in US investment would add 90,000 jobs, though he cautioned that the plants will take time to come online.
“It really takes several years just to construct the shell” of a plant, he said. “How we equip that shell depends on our latest assessments of demand at a given time. The important thing is to have the preparedness to meet the market demand.”
Uploaded by Tham Yek Lee
