US Copper Tariffs - What’s the Idea, and Can It Work?: QuickTake

Prices of copper in the US have surged since January, when President Donald Trump threatened to impose a tariff on imports of the metal that’s a vital component in power networks, plumbing and industrial machinery. Now the copper levy is arriving sooner, and higher, than almost anyone expected.

Trump said on July 9 that US copper imports would face a 50% duty from Aug. 1, declaring in a post on his Truth Social platform that “America will, once again, build a DOMINANT Copper Industry.”

The tariff rate would be double the level foreseen by many analysts. Stockpiling by US ...