Trump introduces new duties on electronics after announcing a postponement. What the media is writing
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- Trump introduces new duties on electronics after announcing a postponement. What the media is writing
US President Donald Trump has announced that he will impose duties on foreign semiconductors. At the same time, the White House previously announced a temporary postponement of a number of tariffs on smartphones and electronics. Against this background, global markets are recovering from the falls of the past few days, but the dollar continues to fall. In Europe, they say that Trump's policy is forcing it to resume buying gas from Russia. What the media write about the world trade war is in the Izvestia digest.
NBC: Trump will impose duties on semiconductors
US President Donald Trump announced on April 13 that he would impose duties on imported semiconductors and announce their amount next week. This means that the recently announced exclusion of smartphones and computers from retaliatory duties for China is likely to be short-lived and will not produce results.
NBC
"We wanted to simplify this for many other companies because we want to produce our chips, semiconductors and other things in our country," Trump told reporters. Trump declined to say whether some products, such as smartphones, could still be exempt from paying the tax, but added, "You have to show some flexibility. No one should be so tough."
Earlier on April 11, the White House announced exemptions from high reciprocal duties, which raised some hope that the technology industry would be able to avoid becoming involved in the escalating conflict between the United States and China and that everyday consumer goods such as phones and laptops would remain affordable. However, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has made it clear that over the next two months, critical technology products from China will be subject to separate new duties along with semiconductors.
Financial Times: Global markets rose after electronics tariffs were postponed
Global stock markets regained losses on April 14, despite U.S. warnings that the postponement of tariffs on certain types of consumer electronics would be temporary. Investors are hoping that tech companies and American consumers can avoid the worst of the current trade war. The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong rose 2.1%, while the Nikkei 225 index in Japan rose 1.2%. Futures for the S&P 500 index rose 1.3%, while futures for the Nasdaq 100 index, consisting mainly of technology companies, rose 1.6% in early trading in Europe.
Financial Times
Trump and other U.S. officials did not elaborate on the postponement and said that industry tariffs on electronics would still take effect as part of a government investigation into semiconductors subject to separate tariffs. The US president wrote on his Truth Social platform: "No one will go unpunished because of the unfair trade balance and non-monetary tariff barriers that other countries have used against us, especially China, which treats us the worst!"
The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds, which is a key indicator of expectations for future U.S. economic growth, decreased by 0.03 percentage points to 4.46%. This is still well above the 4.17% that was before Trump's "tariff exemption day" on April 2. Gold reached a new record high of $3245.75 per troy ounce.
Reuters: Trump pushes the European Union to purchase Russian gas
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States helped the European Union fill the shortage of Russian gas supplies during the energy crisis of 2022-2023. But now that Trump has shaken post-World War II relations with Europe and turned to energy as a bargaining chip in trade negotiations, businesses fear that dependence on the United States has become another vulnerability.
Reuters
Against this background, the heads of large EU companies began to talk about what would have been unthinkable a year ago: importing part of Russian gas, including from the Russian state giant Gazprom, could be a good idea.
Europe's negotiations with the LNG giant Qatar on the supply of more gas have reached an impasse. Although the introduction of renewable energy sources has accelerated, the pace is not so fast that the EU feels safe. Didier Ollo, Executive vice president of the French Engie, notes that in the event of a cessation of hostilities in Ukraine, Europe could purchase up to 70 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia. The same amount was mentioned by the head of the French oil company TotalEnergies, Patrick Pouyanne, who also warned Europe against excessive dependence on American gas.
Bloomberg: Dollar continues to fall amid tariff changes
The dollar weakened to a six-month low amid concerns that the confusion over the Trump administration's tariff policy would push traders away from American assets. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot index fell 0.3% and reached its lowest level since October 2024. This year, the index has fallen by almost 6% amid escalating trade tensions with China, uncertainty about U.S. policy and concerns that economic growth will slow down.
Bloomberg
The dollar's decline resumed after Trump said on Sunday that he would continue to apply tariffs to phones, computers and popular consumer electronics, downplaying the significance of the earlier postponement as a procedural step in his efforts to reform U.S. trade. "NO ONE will get off the hook," the president said in a statement. on social media, when trading started in Asia.
Almost 80% of the survey respondents predict a further weakening of the dollar over the next month, which is the largest share of "bears" since the beginning of such surveys in 2022. According to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the dollar's volatility index remains close to a two-year high, while speculative traders increased their short positions in the US currency in the week to April 8.
The New York Times: Trump has not left a safe harbor for US importers
In recent years, as global supply chains have faced a series of crises, from tariffs to pandemic disruptions and obstacles to shipping in the Panama and Suez Canals, multinational companies that sell their goods in the United States have sought to limit their vulnerability by distributing factory production. Even during Trump's first term, Apple began moving production of iPads and AirPods to Vietnam, and most of the iPhone to India. Nike, Samsung, and other major brands have moved production from Chinese factories to other countries to avoid U.S. duties.
The New York Times
The broadside of the Trump administration this week appears to have destroyed that strategy. American imports from China face duties reaching 125%. Duties on imports from Vietnam were to increase to 46%, while Cambodian goods faced tariffs of 49%. India faced a 27 percent levy.
The suspension of many tariffs has put China in an exceptionally vulnerable position. But importers are realizing that duties for the rest of the world — and especially for Southeast Asia - can be restored. As a result, there will be delays that portend an increase in consumer prices. Supply chains require long-term planning, which is almost impossible in the current environment.
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