Tariffs and chip resilience
U.S. federal court hearings began on a new challenge to President Trump’s latest global tariffs, and Japan approved an extra ¥631.5bn to accelerate Rapidus semiconductor R&D. Those developments were reported together as part of a broader re-pricing of globalisation toward resilience over pure efficiency. (opb.org) (thenews.com.pk)
A United States trade court opened a new fight over President Donald Trump’s 10 percent global tariff as Japan added ¥631.5 billion to its chip push. (opb.org) (reuters.com) The hearing took place on Friday, April 10, in the United States Court of International Trade in New York. A group of 24 mostly Democratic-led states and two small businesses sued to block the tariff, which took effect on February 24 after Trump replaced earlier tariffs the Supreme Court had struck down. (reuters.com) (usnews.com) Judges on the three-member panel pressed government lawyers on whether a large trade deficit is enough legal grounds for a broad import tax. The administration says the tariff is lawful under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 and says it is needed to address trade imbalances. (reuters.com) (politico.com) The Supreme Court changed the legal backdrop on February 20, when it ruled 6-3 that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not let a president impose tariffs. Trump then terminated those emergency-based tariffs and shifted to the narrower Section 122 authority, which trade lawyers say is temporary unless Congress extends it. (supremecourt.gov) (cov.com) Japan moved the same weekend in the opposite direction, using public money rather than border taxes. Its industry ministry approved an additional ¥631.5 billion, about $3.96 billion, for Rapidus to speed research and development on advanced semiconductors. (reuters.com) (japannews.yomiuri.co.jp) A semiconductor is the tiny switch that turns electric signals into computing work, and a foundry is the factory that makes those chips for other companies. Rapidus was set up in 2022 by a Japanese consortium including Toyota, Sony, SoftBank, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, NEC, Denso, Kioxia and MUFG Bank to rebuild domestic capacity in that business. (rapidus.inc) (nippon.com) The new subsidy is aimed mainly at prototype refinement as Rapidus tries to start mass production of 2-nanometer chips in fiscal 2027. Jiji and Reuters reported total state support at roughly ¥2.45 trillion to ¥2.35 trillion, a gap that reflects slightly different counting dates and categories in the public announcements. (japannews.yomiuri.co.jp) (reuters.com) Rapidus has said its pilot line in Chitose, Hokkaido, started in April 2025, with sample production later that year and mass production targeted for 2027. The company’s plan relies on technology cooperation with International Business Machines and on winning enough customers to finance a full-scale manufacturing business. (rapidus.inc) (bloomberg.com) The two moves land in the same supply-chain debate: Washington is testing how far tariff power can go after a court defeat, while Tokyo is spending directly to anchor production at home. The next milestones are a ruling from the trade court and Rapidus’s attempt to turn prototypes into saleable chips by 2027. (reuters.com 1) (reuters.com 2)
