President Donald Trump speaks throughout a Cupboard assembly within the Cupboard Room of the White Home in Washington, July 8, 2025.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | AFP | Getty Pictures
President Donald Trump mentioned he’ll impose a 50% tariff on copper imports on Tuesday, and steered extra steep sector-specific duties are on the best way.
“At the moment, we’re doing copper,” Trump mentioned throughout a Cupboard assembly on the White Home. “I consider the tariff on copper, we will make it 50%.” He didn’t say particularly when that tariff would take impact.
Trump additionally mentioned he would quickly announce tariffs “at a really, very excessive charge, like 200%,” on pharmaceutical imports.
Pharmaceutical corporations may have as much as a 12 months and a half to begin producing their merchandise within the U.S. earlier than these new tariffs take impact, Trump added.
Copper costs jumped to a document excessive after Trump’s abrupt announcement and ended the buying and selling day up 13.12% for the very best one-day achieve since 1989.
Shares of copper miner Freeport-McMoRan, in the meantime, rose 5% as buyers count on home producers to profit from the tariff.
Copper is the third-most-consumed steel, behind iron and aluminum. The U.S. imports practically half of the copper it makes use of, most of which comes from Chile, in response to information from the U.S. Geological Survey.
Trump in late February ordered a probe into potential new tariffs on copper imports on nationwide safety grounds.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick mentioned on CNBC’s “Power Lunch” later Tuesday that that investigation was completed.
“The thought is to deliver copper residence, deliver copper manufacturing residence,” Lutnick mentioned. He famous that Trump’s transfer will deliver copper tariffs consistent with U.S. duties on imports of steel and aluminum, which Trump doubled to 50% in early June.
Lutnick mentioned he anticipated Trump to quickly signal a proclamation that will put the copper tariff in place by the top of July.
The brand new commerce bulletins on copper and prescription drugs are separate from the “reciprocal” tariffs that Trump unveiled in early April, when he imposed a baseline 10% obligation on imports from practically all different nations, in addition to a lot greater charges on dozens of particular person nations.
Trump has repeatedly delayed the upper reciprocal tariffs from taking impact. However on Monday, he despatched out a spate of letters dictating new tariff charges on imports from 14 nations, together with Japan, South Korea and Thailand.
These individualized blanket tariff charges, which ranged from 25% to 40%, are set to take impact Aug. 1.
— CNBC’s Spencer Kimball contributed to this report.
