Washington, Nov 19 (IANS) Officials of US President Donald Trump’s administration have said privately that they might not impose semiconductor tariffs soon, potentially postponing a plan to roll out the sector-specific duty, a report said on Thursday.

Reuters reported, citing multiple unnamed people, that the officials recently delivered the message to government and private-industry stakeholders, amid concerns that additional tariffs could provoke China and heighten worries about consumer prices, reports Yonhap news agency.

Citing two people, the news agency said that aides to Trump are taking their time on the tariffs as they seek to avoid risking another round of trade friction with China.

But a White House official and a Commerce Department official denied that the Trump administration had changed its stance on the chip tariffs, the outlet reported.

On August 6, Trump said he would impose a tariff of about 100 percent on semiconductors, as South Korean tech firms Samsung Electronics Co. and SK hynix Inc., have been carefully watching his tariff policy developments.

On August 15, he also said that he will unveil chip tariffs “sometime next week, (or) the week after,” indicating that the rollout of the duty was imminent. But the exact timing of the formal tariff announcement has yet to be determined.

In a recently released joint fact sheet on trade and security agreements between Seoul and Washington, the U.S. agreed to offer semiconductor tariff rates that are “no less favourable” than terms that may be offered to a partner that conducts chip trade as large as Korea’s.

To impose the industry-specific tariff, Trump has invoked Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, a law that provides the president with the authority to adjust imports into the U.S. when he determines they threaten to impair national security.

—IANS

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