Trump says big copper tariff coming along with crippling drug levy
Trump told reporters during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday in the US 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 per cent,' 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 per cent after Trump's comments, the largest intraday gain in data going back to at least 1988.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, speaking to CNBC shortly after the Cabinet meeting, said his department's investigation into copper had concluded and that he expected the levy 'likely to be put in place end of July — maybe August 1.'
'Copper is finished. We're done with our study,' Lutnick said. 'We've handed the study over to the president. The president knows that he has the ability, since we've studied the market for copper, to set the market tariff for copper.'
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Trump said he expected to offer pharmaceutical manufacturers some time to bring their operations to the US before slapping tariffs of as much as 200 per cent on their products.
An S&P 500 index of drugmakers turned negative after Trump's comments, while shares of Eli Lilly, Merck and Pfizer pared earlier gains.
'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 per cent. We'll give them a certain period of time to get their act together.'
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