U.S. President Donald Trump is continuing to prepare a series of new protectionist policies.
In a statement delivered on Tuesday, July 8, 2025, he announced that his administration plans to impose tariffs on copper and pharmaceutical imports.

According to CNBC International, Trump stated that the U.S. intends to introduce a 50% tariff on imported copper. However, there is no specific timeline yet for when this measure will be officially implemented.

"Today, we plan to impose a tariff on copper. I believe we’ll set the copper tariff at up to 50%," Trump said in remarks at the White House.

Trump also said he would soon announce extremely high tariffs—up to 200%—on pharmaceutical imports.

"Pharmaceutical companies may have up to a year and a half to begin manufacturing their products in the United States before these new tariffs go into effect," he added.

The announcement led to an immediate surge in copper prices, which jumped to a record high, ending the trading day with a 13.12% increase, marking the largest one-day gain since 1989.

Meanwhile, shares of copper mining company Freeport-McMoRan rose by 5%, as investors anticipated that domestic producers would benefit from the tariffs.

Copper is the third most-consumed metal globally, after iron and aluminum. According to data from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the United States imports nearly half of the copper it uses, primarily from Chile, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Peru, China, and Indonesia.

Back in late February 2025, Trump ordered an investigation into the potential implementation of new tariffs on copper imports, citing national security concerns.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick stated that the investigation had been completed and anticipated that Trump would soon sign a proclamation to implement the copper tariffs by the end of July.

"The idea is to bring copper production back to the U.S.," said Lutnick. He noted that this policy would align copper tariffs with those already in place on steel and aluminum, which Trump had doubled to 50% earlier in June.

This new trade action on copper and pharmaceuticals is separate from the "reciprocal tariffs" that Trump announced back in April, when he imposed a baseline 10% import duty on almost all other countries, along with significantly higher tariffs on dozens of them.

Although Trump had previously delayed implementing the higher reciprocal tariffs, on Monday, he issued a series of formal letters instructing the introduction of new tariffs on imports from 14 countries, including Japan, South Korea, and Indonesia.