Copper futures surged as much as 17% after Trump’s comments, the largest intraday gain in data going back to at least 1988. (Qilai Shen/Bloomberg)
President Donald Trump said he planned to implement a 50% rate on copper as part of a set of looming sectoral tariffs, while also indicating he could offer pharmaceutical manufacturers at least a year before implementing levies on their foreign-made products.
Trump told reporters during a Cabinet meeting July 8 he was still planning tariffs on select industries, including drugs, semiconductors and metals.
“I believe the tariff on copper we’re going to make it 50%,” Trump said when asked by a reporter what the rate on those products would be. Copper futures in New York surged as much as 17% after Trump’s comments, the largest intraday gain in data going back to at least 1988.
Trump said he expected to offer pharmaceutical manufacturers some time to bring their operations to the U.S. before implementing the tariffs on their products.
“We’re going to give people about a year, a year and a half, to come in,” Trump said. “And after that they’re going to be tariffed if they have to bring the pharmaceuticals into the country, the drugs and other things, into the country. They’re going to be tariffed at a very very high rate, like 200%. We’ll give them a certain period of time to get their act together.”
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Trump has already announced investigations under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 on each of those products, arguing that a flood of foreign imports was threatening national security. After those efforts are concluded, Trump is expected to move forward with the levies.
That effort is separate from Trump’s other effort to announce new country-specific tariff rates, which would not apply to products hit under his Section 232 efforts. Trump earlier July 8 insisted those country-specific tariffs would move forward at the beginning of August.
