Beijing, (Reuters) .- President Donald Trump said he planned to announce a 50% tariff to copper imports, surprising a worldwide industry whose production is fundamental for electric vehicles, military equipment, semiconductors and a wide range of consumer goods.
Trump had ordered in February an investigation into possible copper tariffs, with a term until November, as part of the efforts to recover American metal production.
It was not clear if the investigation – which intended to evaluate the imports of gross copper extracted, copper concentrates, copper alloys, copper scrap and derived products – had already completed.
The United States Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, said Tuesday that tariffs would probably enter into force at the end of July or August 1.
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This is what you have to know about American copper imports:
EU matters just over half of refined copper
The United States produces in its territory more than half of the refined copper that consumes every year. More than two thirds is extracted from Arizona, where the development of a huge new mine has been paralyzed for more than a decade. The rest of the refined copper, just under one million metric tons per year, is imported.
While the White House framed the new tariffs as a way of counteracting China’s dominance in the world market, the United States in fact imports most of its refined copper of the American continent.
Chile, Canada and Peru represented more than 90% of the imports of refined copper last year, according to the United States Geological Service (USGS).
China dominates World Copper Refined
China dominates the refined world of copper, but most of the mineral that feeds its castings is extracted in other places, especially in Latin America. According to the USGS, Chile and Peru, they extracted approximately one third of the world copper together last year.
However, China is expanding its control over world copper mining through important investments in mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo (RDC).
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The RDC is now the second largest copper producer in the world after overcoming Peru, due in large part to the massive Chinese investment in the mining sector of the African country.
The Chinese sector of the copper smelting dwarfs everyone else. The country had dozens of copper foundations last year. Meanwhile, the United States has only two primary copper castings, according to the USGS.
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