'I am flexible, but I don't change my mind': Trump says he's mulling 'short-lived' tariff exemptions for cars

President Donald Trump Monday said he's looking to provide 'short-lived' tariff exemptions for some of the car companies as they need a little bit of time to switch from parts made in Canada, Mexico and other places. "I am a very flexible person. I don't change my mind but I am flexible. And you have to be because you can't have just a wall and you go along it, sometimes you have to go around it, under it or above it," Trump said on being asked if there will be any product exemptions for Apple.

"I speak to Tim Cook. I helped Tim Cook recently. I don't want to hurt anybody. But the end result is we are going to get to the position of this greatness for our country," Trump said as he answered questions following his meeting with El Salvador president Nayib Bukele.

Trump has already exempted smartphones and certain electronics from the tariffs but warned that it was only for the time being and no one was "getting off the hook". “There was no Tariff ‘exception’, Trump said in a social media post on Sunday. “These products are subject to the existing 20% Fentanyl Tariffs, and they are just moving to a different Tariff ‘bucket.’”

The White House on Friday announced the exclusion of some electronic products from the reciprocal tariffs on China. China’s commerce ministry said the exemption demonstrated the US taking “a small step toward correcting its erroneous unilateral practice of ‘reciprocal tariffs’,” and insisted Washington cancel the whole tariff regime.

Zhang Li, president of the China Center for Information Industry Development, told state media outlet, China Daily, that the exemptions proved “how important China is to major US tech companies that rely heavily on the country for manufacturing and innovation”.
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