US to complete probes into chip, pharmaceutical imports at month's end amid tariff threats

The United States will complete its probes into semiconductor and pharmaceutical imports to determine their national security impact at the end of this month, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Tuesday, raising the prospects of new tariff announcements.

Lutnick made the remarks in a CNBC interview, shortly after President Donald Trump said during a Cabinet meeting that his administration will announce tariffs on pharmaceuticals, chips and other"big ones," while unveiling a plan to impose 50 percent tariffs on copper imports.

"With pharmaceuticals and semiconductors, those studies are being completed at the end of the month," the secretary said. "So the president will then set his policies then, and I am going to let him wait and decide how he's going to do it."

Lutnick was referring to the investigations that he initiated in April under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. Under the law, the president is provided with authority to adjust imports into the US when he determines they threaten to impair national security.

South Korean tech firms, Samsung Electronics Co. and SK hynix Inc., have been carefully watching the investigations as their results could affect tariff rates on their products.

Lutnick said that the investigation into copper imports has been finished.

"We've done with our study. We've handed the study over to the president," Lutnick said, noting that Trump will make a copper tariff announcement on Truth Social later in the day, and sign a related proclamation.

He added that the copper tariff is likely to be put into place at the end of the month or Aug. 1.

The commerce secretary has been tasked with conducting the national security probes and presenting findings and recommendations to the president. Within 90 days after getting a report from the secretary, the president is to determine whether he concurs with the findings and make a decision.

During the Cabinet meeting, Trump said that his administration will announce something "very soon" regarding pharmaceuticals, while indicating that he will give some period of time for pharmaceutical firms to bring their production to the US should they want to avoid tariffs.

"We're going to give people about a year ... a year and a half to come in, to bring the pharmaceuticals into the country. They're going to be tariffed at a very, very high rate, like 200 percent," he said. "We'll give them a certain period of time to get their act together." (Yonhap)