U.S. President Trump said on the 9th that starting August 1, there will be a 50% tariff on all copper coming into the country. American media are warning that this could make raw materials way more expensive for U.S. manufacturers, which might really hurt the manufacturing industry.
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Trump said on Truth Social on the 9th that the decision was based on a thorough national security review. He pointed out that copper is really important for lots of tech fields and is the second most used material by the Defense Department. He also said the U.S. plans to rebuild its stronghold in the copper industry.
Trump mentioned on the 8th that he plans to add a 50% tax on all copper coming into the U.S., but he didn’t say exactly when it would start. CNBC reported that after that day's cabinet meeting, Commerce Secretary Luttig said the Commerce Department finished its investigation into copper imports, following the order Trump issued back in February.
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Data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that in 2024, Chile, Canada, and Mexico were the biggest suppliers of refined copper and copper products to the U.S. Peru is also a major copper exporter. During a press conference on the 9th, Peru's Economy and Finance Minister Raúl Pérez Reyes mentioned that the new U.S. tariffs are only going to affect about 5% of Peru’s copper exports.
The Trump administration has aimed to strengthen U.S. manufacturing, but taxing copper with high tariffs might backfire on its own factories. Almost half of the copper used by American companies comes from other countries. Recently, copper prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange have gone up, making it more expensive for U.S. manufacturers. Now, their costs are much higher than what companies in other parts of the world are paying for copper.
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Hours after Trump unexpectedly announced a 50% tariff on copper late Tuesday, the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers held a meeting with industry folks. They told officials not to include rules on exporting scrap copper in the plan. The U.S. is one of the biggest producers of scrap metal, making more than we need domestically. So, a lot of that extra metal is sent overseas.
Big metal companies like Rio Tinto, Southwire, and Trafigura have gone to the White House, asking them to limit the sale of ore and scrap metal outside the country instead of adding taxes on imported goods.