Newly announced tariffs on imported copper might be the Trump administration's most foolish trade policy yet. It is a move that will force American industries to pay significantly higher prices for a metal that is essential for everything from tech manufacturing to homebuilding.
"Copper is necessary for Semiconductors, Aircraft, Ships, Ammunition, Data Centers, Lithium-ion Batteries, Radar Systems, Missile Defense Systems, and even, Hypersonic Weapons, of which we are building many," Trump wrote Wednesday on Truth Social, as he announced a new 50 percent tariff on all copper imports starting on August 1.
It is exactly because of all those uses that this new tariff is a terrible idea. America has a lot of copper—it was the world's sixth-largest copper producer last year, according to U.S. Geological Survey data—but American demand for copper is even higher. The U.S. imports about half the copper that it uses annually (mostly from allies like Chile and Canada).
