Copper, drugs and chips: Trump escalates global trade war
STORY: Donald Trump is broadening his global trade war with new tariffs:"We did steel, as you know, they're 50%, we did aluminium 50%, lumber just came out. And we did cars cars and now today we're doing copper.”The president said levies on copper would be set at 50%.That’s meant to boost U.S. production of a metal critical to electric vehicles, military hardware, the power grid and much more.But the move will add to uncertainty for industry, following earlier tariffs on steel and other metals.And Trump isn’t stopping there.He said major duties on computer chips and pharmaceuticals were coming soon too.Trump said the levies on drugs could hit 200%.U.S. stocks reacted calmly to the news, however, with the S&P index closing broadly flat on Tuesday.Some analysts attribute that to the so-called “TACO trade” - short for Trump Always Chickens Out on tariffs.Banrion Capital chief Shana Orczyk Sissel says there’s some truth in the idea:“The reason we keep getting extensions of the reciprocal tariffs is because I don’t believe that the administration actually wants to implement the high-level tariffs that they keep threatening. The letters are going out because they’re not getting the deals done that they had hoped, and the threats aren’t really landing the same way.”Letters setting tariffs have so far gone out to 14 nations including Japan and South Korea, who both face 25% levies from August 1.Trump says more letters will soon follow.He said he would “probably” tell the EU what tariff it faces within two days.Though he said the bloc had been behaving “very nicely” in talks.So far, only the UK and Vietnam have trade deals in place, but there is also a framework agreement with China.Trump said he was now getting along well with Beijing, saying the government there had been “very fair” in trade talks.
