President Donald Trump said Tuesday he planned to levy a 50% tariff on all imported copper. He did not say specifically when the tariff would take effect.
The tariff is the result of a Section 232 investigation launched by executive order Feb. 25. The Commerce Department conducts a Section 232 investigation to determine whether imported goods threaten national security.
The president also said Tuesday he will announce pharmaceutical import tariffs that could be as high as 200% in the near future.
Sector-specific tariffs have been in place since late April. The president levied a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum products at that time. The tariff has doubled to 50% since the beginning of last month. The exception is steel and aluminum imports from the United Kingdom, which remain at 25%.
Among the other sectors currently under a Section 232 investigation is the wood products industry. Four days after launching the copper investigation, the president ordered a wood products industry investigation.
The outcome could have a significant RV industry effect. RV manufacturers import lauan wood from Indonesia, paying a collective $1 million monthly at an 8% tariff rate since the wood product’s duty-free status expired at the end of 2020.
Indonesia is among the countries the president sent letters to Monday, detailing its potential standard tariff rate on Aug. 1. Indonesia imports are scheduled to receive 32% overall tariff rate.
Should the wood products sector be levied tariff rates of 50% or higher, similar to the steel/aluminum and copper sectors, the lauan tariff rate could be over 80%, or 10 times its current rate.
