Copper prices in US hit record high after Trump announces 50% tariff | Trump tariffs
Copper prices hit a record high in the US after Donald Trump announced he would impose a 50% tariff on the industrial metal, in the latest escalation of his trade war.
Trump said before a cabinet meeting on Tuesday: “Today we’re doing copper,” proposing a 50% tariff rate for imports. He also threatened to impose a 200% border tax on pharmaceuticals but in a year or year and a half’s time.
The comments added to the confusion around the president’s ever-changing tariffs after he sent letters on Monday setting rates of up to 40% for more than a dozen countries but coming into effect from 1 August rather than a previously reported 9 July date.
Hours after saying his latest deadline for a new wave of steep duties was “not 100% firm”, Trump wrote on social media that “no extensions” would be granted beyond the August deadline.
In another post on his Truth Social site on Tuesday night, he also promised to release tariff details for a further seven countries on Wednesday morning. Trump added that details on more would be revealed in the afternoon.
Copper futures in the US jumped by more than 10% to $5.682 (£4.18) a pound on the tariff threat overnight, hitting an all-time high. The metal has since pared back to $5.662.
Conversely, prices elsewhere in the world fell amid fears that Trump’s threatened levy could reduce US appetite for the metal and hit demand globally. On the London Metal Exchange, copper prices fell by as much as 2.4% at the open, before easing to change hands at $9,653 a tonne.
Multiple sources in the EU, which Trump said could expect a letter regarding its tariff deal in the next 48 hours, said they believed a framework agreement would be reached this week. The agreement is expected to include headline tariff arrangements for a limited number of sectors including cars, steel and medical devices.
The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, told the Bundestag on Wednesday: “I am cautiously optimistic that we can succeed in reaching an agreement with the US in the next few days, by the end of the month at the latest.”
Merz said he was in “close contact” with the US government, Trump and the European Commission, and hoped to secure a deal as quickly as possible that linked “mutual trade between the US and the European Union with the lowest possible tariffs”.
Diplomats in Brussels say the EU’s need to restore calm in the wider transatlantic relationship and keep the US tied into the bloc’s defence and security is also driving the desire for a quick deal.
The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, told MEPs on Wednesday it was ready for contingencies in event of a collapse in talks.
“We stick to our principles, we defend our interests, we continue to work in good faith, and we get ready for all scenarios,” she told the European parliament.
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The US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, said in an interview with CNBC that he expected copper tariffs to be in place as soon as the end of this month, or early August.
The levies are expected to push up costs across key parts of the US economy, given copper’s widespread use across various industries. The metal is present in various products from consumer electronics to cars to datacentres, and is an important component in building renewable energy technology.
Carsten Menke, a lead researcher at the Swiss banking group Julius Baer, said the new metal levy would be inflationary domestically in the US and deflationary internationally.
Christopher LaFemina, an analyst at the broker Jefferies, said the US did not have “nearly enough” mine, smelter or refinery capacity to be self-sufficient in copper. “As a result, import tariffs are likely to lead to continued significant price premiums in the US relative to other regions,” he said.
Trump said on Tuesday that pharmaceutical imports could also be tariffed at a rate as high as 200% within the next year, and that there were plans to introduce new levies on imported chips.
“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 if they have to bring the pharmaceuticals into the country at a very high rate, like 200%,” he said.
“We’re going to be announcing pharmaceuticals, chips and various couple of other things – you know, big ones.”
