US president announces sweeping new tariffs as he continues to change plans.
United States President Donald Trump upped the stakes in his global trade war on Tuesday, with the announcement of plans to impose a 50 percent tariff on all imported copper alongside a 20 percent levy on pharmaceutical products immediately, followed by a rise in one year’s time.
Speaking to CNBC shortly after a Cabinet meeting, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said his department’s investigation into copper imports had concluded and that he expected the levy “likely to be put in place end of July – maybe August 1”.
“The idea is to bring copper home, bring copper production home, bring the ability to make copper, which is key to the industrial sector, back home to America,” Lutnick added.
Trump also indicated that he would apply a tariff as high as 200 percent on foreign-made medicines in about a year’s time. “We’re going to give people about a year, year and a half to come in, and after that they’re gonna be tariffed if they have to bring the pharmaceuticals into the country at a very high rate, like 200 percent,” he said.
