Trump's chip tariffs to have minimal impact on Singapore for now: MTI

The 25% levy applies to narrow category of semiconductors not manufactured here

- Ovais Subhani Senior Business Correspondent

The recently announced US tariffs on semiconductors will have a negligible impact on Singapore's chip industry for now, said the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) in response to queries by The Straits Times.

As part of a proclamation signed by US President Donald Trump last week, certain advanced chips and specified derivative products will now face a 25 per cent tariff when imported into the US.

The levy for now will primarily cover advanced chips such as Nvidia's H200 and AMD's MI325X, mostly used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centres and made in Taiwan.

The duty on these chips will be collected when they are taken into the US for final processing before shipment to foreign markets.

MTI told ST: "Our preliminary assessment, in consultation with the industry, is that the first phase of the semiconductor tariffs announced on Jan 14 has minimal impact on Singapore, given that the tariffs apply to a narrow category of semiconductors not currently manufactured in Singapore."

The US proclamation also stated that the tariff will not apply to chips imported to support the buildout of the US technology supply chain or to bolster the country's manufacturing capacity for derivatives of semiconductors.

These include products imported for use in data centres, research and development, and non-data centre consumer applications.

Mr Trump is holding off for now on applying tariffs to a broader swathe of foreign-made chips, which may include chips made in Singapore.

Instead, the proclamation instructs Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to pursue negotiations with trading partners to address semiconductor imports and to report back in 90 days.