Semiconductors exempt as US declares national emergency to impose tariffs

Business news | April 3, 2025

By Nick Flaherty

Materials & processes Boards & Embedded Cards

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The US government has declared a national emergency in order to impose tariffs on almost all items entering the country on Saturday. However semiconductors and certain critical raw materials for making chips and batteries are exempt.

The chart of tariff rates is below.

The Trump administration invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA) and the National Emergencies Act “to address the national emergency posed by the large and persistent trade deficit that is driven by the absence of reciprocity in our trade relationships and other harmful policies like currency manipulation and exorbitant value-added taxes (VAT) perpetuated by other countries.”

This will see blanket 10% tariffs on almost items, although the tariff on any vehicles will be 25%.

The UK will see the baseline 10%, while the European Union will see 20%. Both have yet to detail any tariffs in return.

The highest tariffs have been reserved for China at 34% and India at 27% as well as low cost countries such as Vietnam at 47% and Cambodia at 49% as well as Malaysia and Thailand (see below). Serbia is also subject to 38% tariffs.

This will not impact on Serbian board maker MikroElektronika. “Most of our distribution orders are below 800 USD which is the threshold,” CEO Neb Matic tells eeNews Europe. Raspberry Pi boards are made in South Wales and so will attract the baseline 10% tariff.

Chip maker Infineon Technologies also sees no impact as semiconductors are exempt.

SealSQ in Switzerland also regards the company as exempt. “The exemption on semiconductor tariffs keeps our business running smoothly,” said Carlos Moreira, CEO of SealSQ, which is acquiring French design house Alps’IC. “Our clients and partners can rely on uninterrupted access to our technology under the current policy.”

Part of the motivation for the tariffs is driven by the defence industry.

“US stockpiles of military goods are too low to be compatible with U.S. national defense interests,” said the administration. “If the US wishes to maintain an effective security umbrella to defend its citizens and homeland, as well as allies and partners, it needs to have a large upstream manufacturing and goods-producing ecosystem. This includes developing new manufacturing technologies in critical sectors like bio-manufacturing, batteries, and microelectronics to support defense needs.”

The critical raw material that are exempt include graphite, cobalt, lithium and niobium for batteries as well as pure silicon, silicon carbide and gallium for wafers. All types of semiconductors are also exempt.