By Alexandra Alper and Akash Sriram
Dec 23 (Reuters) - The Trump administration on Tuesday said it will slap tariffs on Chinese semiconductor imports over Beijing's "unreasonable" pursuit of chip industry dominance, but would delay the action until June 2027.
The tariff rate will be announced at least 30 days in advance, according to the filing, which follows a year-long investigation into China's chip imports into the United States, launched by the Biden administration.
"China’s targeting of the semiconductor
industry for dominance is unreasonable and burdens or restricts U.S. commerce and thus is actionable," the U.S. Trade Representative said in its release. The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The move represents the latest effort by President Donald Trump to dial down tensions with Beijing, faced with Chinese export curbs on the rare earth metals that global tech companies rely on and which China controls.
As part of negotiations with China to delay those curbs, Trump pushed back a rule to restrict U.S. tech exports to units of already-blacklisted Chinese companies. It has also launched a review that could result in the first shipments to China of Nvidia's second-most powerful AI chips, Reuters reported, despite grave concerns from China hawks in Washington who fear the chips could supercharge China's military.
The chip industry is awaiting the outcome of another investigation into chip imports that could hit Chinese goods and result in tariffs on a vast array of technology, but U.S. officials are privately saying that they might not levy them anytime soon, Reuters reported.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva, Kirsten Donovan)
