Trump tariffs live updates: Trump says semiconductor tariffs coming soon, could reach 300%
President Trump said he would unveil tariffs on semiconductor imports over the next couple of weeks as he prepares to expand his tariff agenda to different sectors.
"I'll be setting tariffs next week and the week after on ... chips — chips and semiconductors," he told reporters Friday.
Trump has already suggested he could set tariffs on chip imports around 100%. On Friday, he floated an even bigger number. "I'm going to have a rate that is going to be 200%, 300%," he said.
The president has also promised duties on pharmaceutical imports in the near future.
Meanwhile, tariffs are starting to show up in economic data for the first time in a significant way. Wholesale inflation surged in July, rising by its fastest pace in around three years and stunning market observers.
So far, inflation data has shown little impact since Trump began rolling out sweeping duties in the spring. But as the tariffs become more engrained in the US economy, economists expect more data points to align with this week's Producer Price Index report — perhaps most notably in next month's Consumer Price Index.
So far, stock markets haven't been phased. US stock indexes hit all-time highs this week as the world adapts. New data this week also showed that tariffs have brought in billions in revenue, though economists say a portion of that is already coming in the form of price increases on consumers.
On the negotiations front, Trump signed an executive order extending the tariff truce between the US and China for another 90 days, pushing trade negotiations out to November. Average US tariff rates on Chinese goods are currently around 55%, according to Bloomberg.
Earlier this month, Trump unveiled "reciprocal" tariffs on dozens of US trade partners (which you can see in the graphic below).
The next negotiations to watch are Canada, Mexico, and China in the coming months.
The tariffs are also facing legal limbo. Multiple challenges to Trump's tariffs are pending in US federal courts. The one garnering the most attention is a case heard by an appeals court in July. The Court could nullify or uphold the duties at any time.
Read more: What Trump's tariffs mean for the economy and your wallet
Here are the latest updates as the policy reverberates around the world.
Shares in Applied Materials (AMAT) sank 14% before the bell on Friday after the chip equipment maker issued weak fourth-quarter forecasts on sluggish China demand, fueling concerns over tariff-related risks.
Reuters reports:
The Santa-Clara, California-based company's forecast comes after similar tariff warnings from ASML Holding, the world's biggest supplier of chip-making equipment, last month.
CEO Gary Dickerson flagged lower visibility and increased uncertainty in the near-term, citing \\"wide-ranging implications for the semiconductor industry\\" from the dynamic policy environment, during a post-earnings investor call.
China, Applied Materials' top revenue source in the July quarter, accounting for 35% of sales, has emerged as a growing risk as U.S. export restrictions weigh on new orders for chipmaking tool suppliers.
\\"China volatility is significantly clouding visibility into core earnings potential both geopolitically and cyclically,\\" Deutsche Bank strategists said in a note.
Read more here.
China's economy lagged in July as factory output and retails sales slowed and house prices dropped, according to data released on Friday. President Trump's tariffs have added to uncertainty on exports and are looming over the world's second-largest economy. Concerns linger despite Trump extending a pause in sharp hikes in import duties for 90 days, beginning Monday, following a 90-day pause that began in May.
AP reports:
As officials worked toward a broader trade agreement, China reported earlier that its exports surged 7.2% in July year-on-year, while its imports grew at the fastest pace in a year, as businesses rushed to take advantage of the truce in Trump's trade war with Beijing.
But that also reflected a lower base for comparison, and manufacturers have slowed investments, hiring and production as they watch to see what comes. Chinese manufacturers also have ramped up shipments to Southeast Asia, Africa and other regions to help offset lost business in the U.S.
“Exports remained a bright spot although the boost from front-loading appears to be tapering off and has started to show up in weak industrial production, as we anticipated,” Oxford Economics’ Sheana Yue wrote in a report.
Read more here.
Bloomberg News reports:
Taiwan raised its estimate for growth in 2025, easing some concern over the impact of US duties on an economy that has roared on tech exports.
Gross domestic product is set to expand 4.45% this year, the statistics bureau in Taipei said in a statement on Friday – its first estimate since the Trump administration hit the archipelago’s shipments with 20% tariffs. The new figure is up from the 3.1% predicted in May.
In a sign the government is confident demand for Taiwan’s products will persist, the bureau predicted exports will rise 24.04% this year, up from the previous call of 8.99%.
Read more here.
An interesting spot from this week's inflation data: Prices for the reliable, potassium-heavy banana have jumped to their highest price ever recorded.
Banana prices peaked around $0.64 per pound in the post-COVID inflation wave and then went on a slow downward trajectory. That is, until April 2025, when President Trump announced his first wave of sweeping tariffs. Prices are now hovering near $0.66 per pound.
As the Yale Budget Lab chief Ernie Tedeschi noted on X, the average tariff rate on banana imports went from virtually nothing to very much something as Trump imposed tariffs on most US trading partners.
The average US tariff on bananas was functionally 0% until March of this year. It is now 9.2%. https://t.co/dWwaPpjKUH pic.twitter.com/r4dR0N4OCA
— Ernie Tedeschi (@ernietedeschi) August 13, 2025
That's nuts!
Tapestry (TPR) stock fell 8% before the bell on Thursday after the Coach handbag maker forecast annual profit below estimates. The company cited higher costs due to tariffs that have hit its margins.
Reuters reports:
The company estimates a $160-million hit from the U.S. import duties, which could result in an about 230-basis-point impact on its fiscal 2026 operating margin.
U.S. consumer spending falling unexpectedly in May has also compounded concerns for companies such as Tapestry that have been ramping up efforts to attract younger customers by introducing new accessories and collections.
Read more here.
(Bloomberg) — The Port of Los Angeles said it handled the highest container volume in its 117-year history last month, as uncertainty over President Donald Trump’s tariffs drives shippers to front-load cargoes.
Already the busiest port in the country, LA moved more than 1 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in July, an 8.5% increase from a year ago, the operator said on Wednesday. That includes containers entering and exiting its terminals, with loaded imports rising by a similar percentage to nearly 544,000 TEUs. The total volume handled was 14.2% higher than in June.
Read more here.
US tariffs on pharmaceutical imports are coming but not imminent, Reuters reported Wednesday, citing unnamed sources. Trump has previously warned duties on the drug industry could reach as much as 250%.
Reuters reports:
The announcement by President Donald Trump's administration of the results of a probe into pharmaceutical imports and new sector-specific U.S. tariffs likely remains weeks away, four official and industry sources said, later than initially promised as he focuses on other matters.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had said in April when the review of whether reliance on foreign drug production threatens U.S. national security was launched that he anticipated that it would conclude between mid-May and mid-June. Global pharmaceutical companies are bracing for the outcome of the investigation, which will usher in sector-specific tariffs that Trump has said could start small and eventually rise to 250%.
Read more here.
Brazilinan President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has announced a plan that includes $5 billion in credit to help local exporters handle tariffs .
Associated Press reports:
The Brazilian government on Wednesday unveiled a plan to support local exporters affected by a 50% tariff imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump on several products from the South American nation.
Dubbed “Sovereign Brazil,\\" the plan provides for a credit lifeline of 30 billion reais ($5.5 billion), among other measures.
Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva described the plan, which includes a bill to be sent to Congress, as a first step to help local exporters. Congressional leaders attended Wednesday's ceremony, a first in months, in a sign of growing political support for the leftist leader in response to Trump’s tariffs.
Read more here.
The original price of the 36 fighter jets Switzerland is buying from the United States could go up by more than $1 billion due to the impacts of tariffs.
Reuters reports:
Switzerland remains committed to buying Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II fighter jets from the United States despite an unclear total cost of procurement in part due to the impact of U.S. tariffs, the government said on Wednesday.
The Swiss government reaffirmed its commitment to buying the jets a week after the United States imposed some of its highest tariff rates worldwide on Switzerland due to the size of the U.S. trade deficit with the European country.
The price of the jets would ultimately depend on inflation in the United States, global commodity prices \\"and other factors such as price increases due to the tariffs imposed by the USA worldwide,\\" the government said in a statement.
Read more from Reuters here.
Mark Bendeich of Reuters details how the confluence of supply chain disruption from Trump's tariff policy and the rise of AI software solutions is leading to increased innovation among manufacturers.
Spending on software that includes generative AI for supply chains, capable of learning and even performing tasks on its own, could hit $55 billion by 2029, up from $2.7 billion now, according to U.S. research firm Gartner, driven in part by global uncertainties.
\\"The tool just puts up in front of you: 'I think you can take 100 tonnes of this product from this plant to transfer it to that plant. And you just hit accept if that makes sense (to you),\\" McKinsey supply chain consultant Matt Jochim said.
Richard Howells, SAP vice president and supply chain specialist, emphasized that the uncertainty surrouding Trump's trade policy is driving the technology push.
\\"That's how it was during the financial crisis, Brexit and COVID,\\" Howells stated. \\"And it's what we're seeing now.\\"
Read more here.
GE Appliances will move production of its refrigerators, gas ranges and water heaters from China and Mexico, investing over $3 billion to expand plans in five US states.
AP News reports:
The investment — the second-largest in the Louisville-based company's history — is expected to add more than 1,000 jobs while ramping up domestic production and modernizing plants in the next five years.
“Our long-term strategy is about manufacturing close to our customers,” said CEO Kevin Nolan. “With lean manufacturing, upskilling our workforce and automation, the math works for manufacturing in the United States.”
In June, the company said it would move production of clothes washers from China to its sprawling manufacturing complex in Louisville. The reshoring announcements come as President Donald Trump tries to lure factories back to the United States by imposing import taxes — tariffs — on foreign goods.
Read more here.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent ruled out Chinese investments as part of a US trade deal.
When asked if China would offer a multi-billion dollar pleadges like Japan, South Korea and the EU, Bessent said no.
Bloomberg News reports:
Bessent said “my sense is no because a lot of the buyout or the funds from the buyout are going to go to critical industries that we need to reshore and a lot of those need to be reshored away from China.”
Whether the industry was semiconductors, rare-earth magnets, pharmaceuticals or steel, “my sense is that isn’t what will happen,” Bessent said in an interview with Fox Business on Tuesday in the US.
Bessent’s comments point to the competition between the US and China over a range of issues, with tech and AI among the most high profile. President Donald Trump has extended a pause of higher tariffs on Chinese goods for another 90 days into early November, a move that stabilized trade ties between the world’s two largest economies while they try to forge an agreement.
Read more here.
Yahoo Finance's Brett LoGiurato and Ben Werschkul report:
President Trump's tariffs poured billions into US coffers in July as he continued to reshape the US trade landscape, putting the revenue supplied by importers at another monthly record.
New data from the Treasury Department released Tuesday afternoon confirmed that June marked another record month on the revenue front, with some $27.7 billion in customs duties coming into US coffers.
This was another step up from June's total of $26.6 billion and May's total of $22.2 billion. It represents a significant jump from around $8 billion in customs duties one year ago and brings the total for the fiscal year to around $135.7 billion. The government's fiscal year ends Sept. 30.
Read more here.
Leaders of the BRICS nations seem to be in talks. Brazilian President Lula spoke with China's leader Xi after meeting with India and Russia. This outreach comes after President Trump pulled Brazil into his trade war. During the call, China's Xi urged for coordinated efforts against US protectionism.
Bloomberg News reports:
During the phone conversation on Tuesday morning in Beijing, Xi called for coordinated efforts against unilateralism and protectionism — language usually used by China to criticize US trade policy. He said China supports the Brazilian people in safeguarding their country’s legitimate rights, describing ties between the two nations as being “at their best in history,” according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
China is willing to work with Brazil to strengthen coordination and set an example of “unity and self-reliance among Global South nations,” CCTV cited Xi as saying.
The call caps an effort by Lula to build solidarity across the BRICS club of major emerging nations, of which Brazil is a founding member along with Russia, China and India. Lula spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the past few days, as Brazil came under pressure from the US.
Brazil has become a target of Trump’s trade war after he imposed higher tariffs in an effort to end the trial of former President Jair Bolsonaro on charges that he attempted a coup. Lula’s government has responded by seeking to expand trade with other partners, especially with China, India and Southeast Asia.
Read more here.
Soybean (ZS=F) prices fell back below $10 a bushel on Tuesday, after news of the US-China trade truce extension. Traders saw this truce as likely delaying major grain-purchasing deals between the two nations until later this year.
Bloomberg News reports:
Contracts for a November delivery had dropped about 1% as of 11:45 a.m. Singapore time, a turnaround from Monday’s 2.4% rise that came in response to US President Donald Trump’s call for China to “quadruple” its purchases of the major oilseed.
The US leader later announced the truce with Beijing would be extended for another 90 days, with trade restrictions now due to come into effect in early November if both governments can’t reach a deal.
Read more here.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union could not say when a joint statement on tariffs with the United States would be ready, nor when the White House would issue an executive order on European car import duties, a spokesperson said on Tuesday.
The EU and U.S. reached a framework trade agreement at the end of July but only the 15% baseline tariff on European exports had so far come into effect, as of last week. EU officials previously said a joint statement would follow the deal \\"very soon\\" along with executive orders from U.S. President Donald Trump on key carve-outs.
\\"It is an agreement that we believe is strong and the best we could have ... Of course, we expect the U.S. to take further steps that are part of this agreement but I don't believe at this stage we can put a timeline on these engagements,\\" the European Commission spokesperson said.
Read more here.
Zhou Mi, an expert at the Ministry of Commerce-backed Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, told Bloomberg that there remains a \\"climate of uncertainty\\" despite the latest 90-day pause on additional tariffs enacted by the US on Monday.
The Trump administration “frequently sends out a range of signals, often through its negotiation tactics and public statements — some of which even contradict each other,” Zhou told Bloomberg.
“This creates a climate of uncertainty that makes businesses and markets increasingly concerned about the stability and outlook for economic and trade policies between China and the US, as well as the US and other countries.\\"
Average US tariffs on good imported from China currently sit at 55%.
Read more here.
Not everyone is fully satisfied with President Donald Trump's social media statement on not putting tariffs on gold after uncertainty in the bullion market in recent days.
\\"President Trump's statement is an encouraging signal for trade stability,\\" Christoph Wild, president of the the the Swiss precious metals association ASFCMP, stated on Tuesday. \\"However, only a formal and binding decision will provide the certainty the gold sector and its partners require.\\"
Read more here.
China has told local companies to avoid using Nvidia (NVDA) H20 processors, especially for government work. This makes it harder for Nvidia to recover billions in lost sales in China and affects the US government's plan to benefit from those sales.
This latest move by China appears to be in response to the deal Nvidia and AMD (AMD) made with the US government over the weekend to pay the US 15% of the revenue for AI-related chip sales to China, adding a monetization layer to the Trump administration's tariff policy that has reoriented global trade relationships.
In recent weeks, Chinese officials warned several firms against using these less advanced chips. The strongest advice was to keep J20 processors out of government national security projects, both for state-owned and private companies.
Bloomberg News reports:
In addition to Nvidia, Beijing’s overall push affects AI accelerators from Advanced Micro Devices Inc., one of the people said, though it’s unclear whether any letters specifically mentioned AMD’s MI308 chip. Both companies recently secured Washington’s approval to resume lower-end AI chip sales to China, on the controversial and legally questionable condition that they give the US government a 15% cut of the related revenue. Now, Nvidia and AMD face the challenge that their Chinese customers are under Beijing’s pressure not to make those purchases.
Some of Beijing’s letters to companies included a series of questions, according to one of the people, such as why they buy Nvidia H20 chips over local alternatives, whether that’s a necessary choice given domestic options, and whether they’ve found any security issues in the Nvidia hardware. The notices coincide with state media reports that cast doubt on the security and reliability of H20 processors. Chinese regulators have raised those concerns directly with Nvidia, which has repeatedly denied that its chips contain such vulnerabilities.
Read more here.
The Nikkei 225 (^N225) hit a record high Tuesday as easing US tariff fears boosted optimism, led by tech stocks and tariff relief.
Bloomberg News reports:
The blue-chip gauge climbed as much as 2.8% before closing 2.2% higher at 42,718.17, joining the Topix in surpassing July 2024 peaks. Chip-related names jumped after Micron Technology Inc. (MU) raised its sales outlook, while memory maker Kioxia Holdings Corp. (KI5.F) posted strong results.
Japanese equity markets, which resumed trade after Monday’s holiday closing, also gained on speculation the government will expand fiscal stimulus after the ruling party’s poor upper house election result last month.
Read more here.