Trump has already announced investigations under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 on each of those products, arguing that a flood of imports threatens national security. After those efforts are concluded, Trump is expected to move forward with the levies.
That effort is separate from Trump’s other move to announce new country-specific tariff rates, which would not apply to products hit under his Section 232 efforts. Earlier on Tuesday, Trump insisted those country-specific tariffs would move forward at the beginning of August.
US President Donald Trump during a cabinet meeting at the White House.Credit: Bloomberg
The copper rate, while long telegraphed, threatens to upend an industry that for decades subsisted on a combination of vibrant domestic production and steady imports from some of the US’s strongest trade allies. It also comes after Trump, during his first term, focused his raw materials trade war on steel and aluminum, leaving copper producers, traders and consumers relieved that they avoided market upheaval.
Trump’s directive also comes as the US and the rest of the world expect a dramatic surge over the coming decade in demand for the industrial metal, with data centres, automobile companies, power companies and others scouring the globe for necessary feedstock to increase electric vehicle output and electric grid capacity.
Retooling power and transportation systems to run on renewable energy will require far more copper than the companies that produce it are currently committed to.
The US consumed about 1.6 million tons of refined copper in 2024, according to the US Geological Survey. While the US has significant mines, producing some 850,000 tons of primary copper last year, it still relies on imports from key trade allies to fill the need. Chile is the largest import source, accounting for 38 per cent of total import volumes, followed by Canada and Mexico at 28 per cent and 8 per cent, respectively. Net copper imports account for 36 per cent of demand, according to Morgan Stanley research.
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Trump has been talking about pharmaceuticals since he began rolling out his tariff agenda, despite industry concerns that duties could wreak havoc on supply chains, exacerbate drug shortages and drive up costs for Americans.
He has long criticised foreign production of medicine as a threat to national security and raised the spectre of tariffs to encourage drugmakers to manufacture domestically.
Any tariffs that are imposed are expected to have an outsize effect on Ireland, where a $US54 billion ($82.7 billion) trade surplus with the US helped spur Trump’s wrath.
The imbalance, heavily driven by pharmaceuticals, stems from the country’s favourable tax regime and highly educated workforce. US drug companies, including Lilly and Pfizer, operate nearly two dozen factories in Ireland that ship to the US, according to a TD Cowen analysis.
Bloomberg
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