United States President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that he will impose a 100% rate on importing chips and semiconductors to force companies to manufacture these products in the country.
“Let’s impose a very high fare on chips and semiconductors,” Trump said at the White House Oval Hall during an event with Apple CEO Tim Cook, according to CNBC.
“But the good news for companies like Apple is that if you are manufacturing in the United States or committed to manufacturing in the United States, there will be no charge,” the president said.
“In other words, we will apply a tariff of approximately 100% on chips and semiconductors. But if you are making in the United States of America, there will be no charge,” Trump summed up.
At the White House event, Apple announced a commitment to invest another $ 100 billion to expand its production in the United States, thus increasing the total investment in the country to $ 600 billion over the next four years, in line with Trump’s demands and aiming to avoid tariffs.
Prior to this new announcement, Apple had already informed the intention of investing $ 500 billion in several projects, such as building a server factory in Houston, Texas, and opening a gym for suppliers at Michigan.
Earlier this year, Trump threatened to impose a 25% rate on Apple’s products if the company did not transfer their manufacture to the US.
In May, Apple announced that it would produce iphones to the US market to prevent the tariffs applied to imports from China, a decision that was poorly received by Trump.
