TMTPOST -- U.S. President Donald Trump late Wednesday announced he would impose a 50% tariff on all copper imports into the United States, effective August 1. Copper futures in the U.S. rose more than 2% following Trump's announcement.
Credit：Xinhua News Agency
The announcement came a day after Trump's threat of new sectoral tariffs. Trump said he would impose a 50% tariffs on all copper imported into the United States during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, without specifying when the new levies would go into effect. “Today, we’re doing copper,” Trump said at the White House. “I believe the tariff on copper, we’re going to make it 50%.”
U.S. copper price jumped as much as 17% after Trump made the aforementioned remarks. Futures contracts for the meta closed 13% higher to record high close on Tuesday, the largest single-day price gain in records dating back to 1968, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
The Trump administration believes copper plays a critical role in defense applications, infrastructure and merging technologies. Trump on February 25 signed an executive order to direct the U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to probe into the effects of copper imports on national security under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962.
Lutnick told CNBC later Tuesday that the aforementioned investigation had concluded and he expected the copper levy is likely to be put in place end of July, maybe August 1.
Trump during the meeting disclosed steep tariffs on the pharmaceutical sector will be announced “very soon”, while he could offer the pharmaceutical manufacturers at least a year for transition of their production to the U.S. before implementing the tariffs up to 200%. "We’re going to give people about a year, year and a half to come in, and after that they're going to be tariffed," Trump said. "If they have to bring the pharmaceuticals into the country, … they're going to be tariffed at a very high rate — like 200%."
Trump also said he was planning tariffs on semiconductors, though didn’t provide details such as timetable and tariff rates.
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