Selective tariffs reshape supply chains

Washington is no longer using one trade tool on China. It is pairing export controls with targeted tariffs that let some chip sales proceed while making them costlier and more conditional. (congress.gov) The latest example is a January 14, 2026 presidential proclamation that put a 25% tariff on certain semiconductors imported into the United States for later shipment to China. The measure was published in the Federal Register on January 20 under Section 232, the national-security tariff law. (federalregister.gov) Congressional Research Service said the administration tied that tariff to a new export-license system for chips sold to China. In December 2025, President Donald Trump said Nvidia could sell its H200 chip to China if the company paid the U.S. government 25% of an unspecified sum, and that the same approach would apply to Advanced Micro Devices, Intel and others. (congress.gov) That has left companies with market access that exists on paper but not always in practice. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on April 22, 2026 that Nvidia had not yet sold H200 chips to Chinese companies because Beijing had not yet allowed those purchases and because sales terms remained disputed in both China and the United States. (yahoo.com) The point of the arrangement is not a blanket cutoff. It is a filter: Washington can permit selected shipments after a U.S. security review, collect a tariff when the chips enter from fabrication sites such as Taiwan, and still keep leverage over which Chinese buyers get access. (congress.gov) That approach is spreading pressure beyond the U.S.-China lane. An Observer Research Foundation analysis published April 23 said Washington has also tightened rules-of-origin enforcement on goods moving through Southeast Asian ports, after a one-year U.S.-China trade truce reached at the Busan summit in October 2025. (orfonline.org) The same analysis said the United States opened a March 11, 2026 trade investigation into alleged excess industrial capacity involving 16 trading partners, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. Vietnam, and to a lesser extent Malaysia and Thailand, were identified as possible transhipment points for Chinese exports. (orfonline.org) For manufacturers, that means the old question of where to build is now tied to where a product is reviewed, where it lands first, and whether customs officials treat a regional route as normal trade or a China workaround. The House of Commons Library said on April 14 that the wider U.S. tariff system has already made the outlook for world trade more uncertain. (commonslibrary.parliament.uk) The result is a supply chain that is not simply decoupling from China or reopening to China. It is being rerouted through a system in which access depends on tariffs, licenses, origin rules and approvals on both sides. (congress.gov)