President Donald Trump said he plans to implement a 50% tariff on copper imports, and is mulling a 200% levy on imported pharmaceutical products later this year.
“Today, we’re doing copper,” Trump said during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday in Washington. “I believe the tariff on copper, we’re going to make it 50%.”
The 50% tariff on imported copper and a potential 200% import tax on pharmaceutical products is part of a plan to get companies to move production back to the U.S., Trump administration officials said.
“The idea is to bring copper home, bring copper production home,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in an interview on CNBC.
Lutnick said that tariffs on imports of copper could be put in place by Aug. 1. In June, the Trump administration doubled its tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to 50%, with the exception of the United Kingdom, which remains at 25%.
While the U.S. has domestic copper production, it imported around $17 billion worth of copper in 2024, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. Chile, Canada, Peru and Mexico were the leading suppliers of imported copper to the U.S.
Copper is used in everything from consumer electronic devices (including smartphones), electric vehicles, and medical devices, along with components for electric grids and transportation systems, according to the National Mining Association.
Copper is imported into the U.S. through a combination of ocean freight, trucking and rail. The majority of copper imports to the U.S. arrive via ocean container ships, often at major ports such as the ports of New Orleans, Los Angeles, and Houston.
