SEOUL, May 23 (AJP) -U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Friday that Washington is not planning immediate semiconductor tariffs but stressed that duties remain an important tool to rebuild domestic chip manufacturing, signaling continued pressure on Asian chipmakers including Samsung Electronics and SK hynix to expand production in the United States.
Speaking at a memory chip expansion project by Micron Technology in Virginia, Greer said the Trump administration’s Section 232 national security investigation into semiconductors aims to strengthen U.S. production capacity after decades of offshoring.
“Having tariffs on semiconductors is really important,” Greer said, adding that any duties must be introduced with the “right timing and in the right amount.” He also said there was “not an immediate tariff coming.”
The remarks come as President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized Taiwan’s semiconductor industry and called for aggressive tariffs to revive U.S. chip manufacturing.
In a recent interview with Fox News after his state visit to China, Trump reiterated that Taiwan “stole our chip industry” and argued that previous U.S. administrations should have imposed tariffs of up to 200 percent on imported semiconductors to prevent production from moving overseas.
Trump has also promoted large-scale semiconductor investments into the United States as part of his administration’s push to strengthen domestic manufacturing and artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company last year announced plans to increase its total U.S. investment to $165 billion, including five new fabrication facilities in Arizona.
Samsung is expanding its foundry operations in Taylor, Texas, where the company is building a semiconductor manufacturing complex expected to begin initial production by late 2026. The company is said to be reviewing additional foundry investments after securing a $16.5 billion supply agreement with Tesla.
Samsung had previously reduced its planned Texas investment from $44 billion to $37 billion due to weaker-than-expected customer demand, but total spending could eventually exceed $50 billion as it estimated supply would remain below customer demand through 2027.
SK hynix is also expanding its U.S. footprint with a planned $3.87 billion advanced chip packaging facility in Indiana. The project is expected to begin mass production in late 2028 and has qualified for proposed support under the U.S. CHIPS Act.
The facility will focus on advanced packaging for AI memory products, an area where SK hynix currently leads the global market through its supply relationship with NVIDIA.
Trump administration’s trade stance is reinforcing a broader shift in the semiconductor industry, where companies are increasingly being pushed to localize manufacturing in major markets to reduce geopolitical and supply-chain risks.
The United States currently produces only about 10 percent of the semiconductors it consumes.
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