MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The Trump administration said late Friday that mobile phones, computers, and other electronics will not be part of the triple-digit tariffs against China. That carve-out might not last, though, and neither side appears ready to back down. NPR's John Ruwitch has been following all these twists and turns from Beijing, and he's with us now to tell us more. Good morning, John.
JOHN RUWITCH, BYLINE: Good morning.
MARTIN: So no new tariffs. And what about that carveout for electronics? Can you tell us more?
RUWITCH: Yeah. Late on Friday, Customs and Border Protection posted a notice online. It was full of legalese and arcane tariff codes. And what it translated into was no tariffs on mobile phones, computers, memory chips, flat screens, LEDs, stuff like that. This is substantial because electronics account for roughly a quarter of Chinese exports to the U.S. China's commerce ministry responded fairly quickly over the weekend, calling it a small step toward correcting the error of imposing those so-called reciprocal tariffs on China and on other countries.
MARTIN: How is this being interpreted? Is it seen as a sign of goodwill or maybe a face-saving way to de-escalate this trade war that Trump started?
RUWITCH: It was initially, but it doesn't look like it is. You know, Trump's come out on social media to say that nobody's getting off the hook. These products are just moving to a different tariff bucket. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick explained it on Sunday on ABC's "This Week."
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THIS WEEK")
HOWARD LUTNICK: So all those products are going to come under semiconductors, and they're going to have a special focused type of tariff to make sure that those products get reshored.
RUWITCH: So he's saying they're exempted from the so-called reciprocal tariffs that Trump announced so that they're sort of off the menu for negotiation. Why? Because they're going to be lumped in with semiconductors under a separate tariff that he says will be announced in the next month or two, and not just on China. And the idea is to force supply chains of those products back to the U.S.
MARTIN: So where do things stand from China's perspective?
RUWITCH: Well, China's been pretty consistent. They've projected defiance throughout this. You know, Trump seems to be waiting for Chinese leader Xi Jinping to pick up the phone and call him. That's not how China operates. It doesn't mean that they're not open to discussion, though. I asked Andy Rothman about this last night here in Beijing. He advises investors and corporate boards on China, and he's been on a trip here meeting companies and contacts.
ANDY ROTHMAN: I think the Chinese have made clear they want to negotiate. They want to resolve this problem, but they're not sure what the U.S. is looking for. They're also very unsure about what the U.S. is willing to offer in return.
RUWITCH: Meanwhile, China has taken steps to, you know, gird for these tariffs. One part of that is deepening relations with other countries, in particular neighbors, and it just so happens that Xi Jinping left today on his first overseas trip of the year.
MARTIN: OK. Now, that's interesting. So where is he headed?
RUWITCH: First stop is Vietnam. He's in Hanoi now. He heads to Malaysia next for three days and then to Cambodia. The Chinese government's projecting China as sort of an anchor in rough seas, a reliable trading partner. In fact, Xi had a piece in the Vietnamese Communist Party's mouthpiece newspaper today calling for joint efforts to protect the multilateral trading system and maintain stable supply chains. But these Southeast Asian countries are in a tough spot. They've all benefited, to some extent, from the trade friction between the U.S. and China in recent years because manufacturing has moved their way. And also they are all negotiating or seeking to negotiate with the Trump administration to keep the tariffs off.
MARTIN: That is NPR's John Ruwitch in Beijing. John, thank you.
RUWITCH: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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