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WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump signed an order Thursday to set minimum import prices and new tariffs on products made using polysilicon, a key material for solar panels and semiconductors.

Such products face a 15-percent tariff starting December 4, the order said. It also outlined minimum import prices for polysilicon and goods like wafers and solar cells to take effect on the same date.

The aim is “to create a level playing field for American producers of these strategic goods,” and to “encourage onshoring of these industries,” the White House said in a fact sheet.

It added that polysilicon is an important component in the semiconductor industry with defense- uses.

The move comes after a year-long Commerce Department probe on imports of the material, which Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick called a “foundational product” going into chips.

“We’re making the products here, but we need the supply chain here. So this will bring the supply chain here,” Lutnick told reporters at the White House on Thursday.

“We’re setting prices so that the Chinese can’t dump anymore, and we’re setting tariffs to say build it here. We’ve got the industry here; it’s too small, and it’s going to explode under your leadership,” he added, referring to Trump.