Trump says steep copper tariffs in store as he broadens his trade war
WASHINGTON/TOKYO - US President Donald Trump broadened his global trade war on July 8 as he announced a 50 per cent tariff on imported copper and said long-threatened levies on semiconductors and pharmaceuticals were coming soon.
One day after he pressured 14 trading partners, including powerhouse US suppliers like South Korea and Japan, with sharply higher tariffs, Mr Trump reiterated his threat of 10 per cent tariffs on products from Brazil, India and other members of
the Brics group of countries.
He also said trade talks have been going well with the European Union and China, though added he is only days away from sending a tariff letter to the EU.
Mr Trump's remarks, made during a White House Cabinet meeting, could inject further instability into a global economy that has been rattled by the tariffs he has imposed or threatened on imports to the world's largest consumer market.
US copper futures jumped more than 10 per cent after Mr Trump's announcement of new duties on a metal that is critical to electric vehicles, military hardware, the power grid and many consumer goods. They would join duties already in place for steel, aluminum and automobile imports.
US pharmaceutical stocks also slid from the day's highs following Mr Trump's threat of 200 per cent tariffs on drug imports, which he said could be delayed by about a year. Other countries, meanwhile, said they would try to soften the impact of Mr Trump's threatened duties after
he pushed back a July 2 deadline to Aug 1.
Mr Trump's administration promised '90 deals in 90 days' after
he unveiled an array of country-specific duties in early April.
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So far only two agreements have been reached, with the United Kingdom and Vietnam. Mr Trump has said a deal with India is close. Mr Trump said countries have been clamouring to negotiate.
'It's about time the United States of America started collecting money from countries that were ripping us off... and laughing behind our back at how stupid we were,' he said.
Highest levels since 1934
Following Mr Trump's announcement of higher tariffs for the 14 countries, US research group Yale Budget Lab estimated consumers face an effective US tariff rate of 17.6 per cent, up from 15.8 per cent previously and the highest since 1934.
Goldman Sachs said the July 7 actions would add 1.4 percentage points to the US effective tariff rate. Mr Trump's administration has been touting those tariffs as a significant revenue source. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Washington has taken in about US$100 billion (S$128 billion) so far and could reach US$300 billion by the end of the year.
Global stocks showed muted reaction on July 8, as investors took in their stride the latest twist in the tariff saga.
Mr Trump said he will 'probably' tell the European Union within two days what rate it can expect for it exports to the US, adding that the 27-member bloc had been treating his administration 'very nicely' in trade talks.
The EU, the largest bilateral trade partner of the US, aims to strike a deal before Aug 1 with concessions for certain key export industries, such as aircraft, medical equipment and spirits, according to EU sources. Brussels is also considering an arrangement that would protect European automakers with large US production facilities.
However, German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil warned that the EU was prepared to retaliate if necessary.
'If we don't reach a fair trade deal with the US, the EU is ready to take counter measures,' he said in the lower house of Parliament.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (centre) said Washington has taken in about US$100 billion (S$128 billion) so far, from the tariff measures, and could reach US$300 billion by the end of the year.
PHOTO: AFP
Japan, which faces a possible 25 per cent tariff, wants concessions for its large automobile industry and will not sacrifice its agriculture sector, a powerful domestic lobby, for the sake of an early deal, top trade negotiator Ryosei Akazawa said on July 8.
South Korea, which also faces a possible 25 per cent tariff, said it planned to intensify trade talks over the coming weeks 'to reach a mutually beneficial result.'
Washington and Beijing agreed to a trade framework in June, but with many of the details still unclear, traders and investors are watching to see if it unravels before a separate, US-imposed Aug 12 deadline or leads to a lasting detente.
Spreading the pain
Mr Trump said the United States would impose tariffs of 25 per cent on goods from Tunisia, Malaysia and Kazakhstan, with levies of 30 per cent on South Africa, Bosnia and Herzegovina, climbing to 32 per cent on Indonesia, 35 per cent on Serbia and Bangladesh, 36 per cent on Cambodia and Thailand and 40 per cent on Laos and Myanmar. Cambodia, hit hard by levies imposed in April, on July 8 hailed as a big success a reduction in the tariff rate from 49 per cent to 36 per cent and said it was seeking to negotiate a further cut.
The tariffs have been an issue for Cambodia's garments and footwear sector, a major employer and the biggest driver of its economy.
The US is also the main export market for Bangladesh's ready-made garments industry, which accounts for more than 80 per cent of its export earnings and employs four million people.
'This is absolutely shocking news for us,' Mr Mahmud Hasan Khan, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, told Reuters on July 8.
'We were really hoping the tariffs would be somewhere between 10-20 per cent. This will hurt our industry badly.' REUTERS
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Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Fresh durian at the 99 Old Trees Durian farm in Bekok, Johor, in early June. JOHOR/SINGAPORE – Like most monarchs, the king of fruit resides in a lush, sprawling estate, tended to by a fleet of courtiers eagerly anticipating its every need. At the beginning of June, all is quiet in this particular royal nursery in the Malaysian town of Bekok. Dogs scamper between the trees and sunlight filters through in irregular beams, illuminating patches of grass where fallen durians, small and shrivelled, lie in the ignominy of unrealised potential. Had they hung on for a few more weeks, their fall might have been cushioned by nets, strung up between the trees to catch the precious cargo. But the harvest is not yet ripe for the picking. Fruit on a durian tree at VS Farms in Bekok, Johor, in early June. ST PHOTO: MARK CHEONG This durian season is shaping up to be slower than usual, the winds of change already whistling through the trees. 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2 hours ago
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Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox At one point, Ms Holton estimated that there were as many as 120 boxes sitting on her property. SAN JOSE, California - About a year ago, a single package appeared on Ms Karen Holton's porch in San Jose, California. She was bewildered; she had not ordered anything, and neither had her neighbours. So she dropped the package at United Parcel Service (UPS) , and thought that was the end of it. She was wrong. 'They kept coming,' Ms Holton, 55, said in an interview on July 11 . It was just the beginning of a year-long ordeal as the unintended recipient of misdirected Amazon returns. Over months, an onslaught of cartons and boxes grew at the doorstep of Ms Holton's home, a single-family house on a corner lot, in stacks so high that she was unable to easily use her door or get to her mail. 'They were always put on my porch, or if the porch was too full, they would pile up outside,' she said. 'It was hit and miss. A couple of weeks there were none. And then 10 in a week. No rhyme or reason to it. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Asia Air India crash report shows pilot confusion over engine switch movement Business F&B operators face tougher business landscape amid rising costs and stiff competition Business What's in store for policyholders after GE removes pre-authorisation letters for two private hospitals Multimedia Which floor is this? Chongqing's maze-like environment powers its rise as a megacity Life At 79, she can do 100 pull-ups: Why more seniors are hitting the gym Asia 'Woven air': Ancient fabric spun across history makes comeback amid lies and climate change World US man who decapitated father and displayed head on YouTube gets life in prison Business 4 conditions that allow seniors with dementia to sign wills 'I had to move them if I wanted to be able to use my porch or get into my house,' she said. Eventually, she started to move them to the carport, and covered the boxes with a tarp, worried about rain, fire and rodents. The chaotic stacks of mismatched packages grew into musty walls so tall that she was unable to park there. Occasionally, she opened a few, and pulled out what she described as 'cheap' fake leather car seat covers. At one point, she estimated that there were as many as 120 boxes sitting on her property. Her ordeal as the recipient of e-commerce returns gone wrong was reported by San Francisco's news outlet ABC 7, which portrayed it as a case study in how a seller based overseas – in this case an outfit called Liusandedian that sold car seat covers configured to fit various makes and models – can use any random address in the United States as the location for its returns. The company's online listings appeared inactive on July 11 . Ms Holton did not know how her address came to be the one provided by the seller, which she said appeared to be based in China. She tried to stop the flow. She contacted FedEx and UPS, she said, and was told that she either had to be at the door and decline the deliveries in person, or to register her address as permanently refusing deliveries. 'Anytime I would hear a truck pull up, I would run out and make sure they were not dropping off,' she said. She said she was able to intercept and stop the delivery of dozens of packages, estimating that hundreds were sent to her. Ms Holton said she contacted Amazon six times to file a complaint and was told she had to drop off the packages herself at an Amazon return location. Amazon said in a statement on July 11 that it had taken steps to stop the packages from being delivered to Ms Holton's address, and that it would collect others that may still be in transit, should they arrive at her home. 'We'd like to thank ABC 7 On Your Side for bringing this to our attention,' an Amazon spokesperson, Ms Sharyn Ghacham, said in the statement. 'We've apologised to the customer and are coordinating with the seller responsible toward a permanent resolution.' On July 8 , a large truck that Ms Holton described as one typically used when cars are repossessed, pulled up to her property and gathered the remaining packages from her carport and porch. 'Even the guy that came to pick them up was like, 'What the … ?'' she said. Ms Holton is relieved, but wary, wondering whether this is really an end to a nightmare in which even porch pirates have been of no help. 'I was hoping somebody would steal it off my carport,' she said of the growing stack of boxes. 'Even thieves didn't want it.' NYTIMES
