President Trump signed an executive order Tuesday directing his commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, to begin an investigation into whether foreign production of copper and imports of the material into the United States pose risks to America’s economic and national security.
White House officials said that, depending on the results of the investigation, new tariffs could be applied on copper, a material that is widely used in manufacturing and construction and is crucial to the U.S. military and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence.
White House officials were scant on details during a call with reporters on Tuesday afternoon, including when the investigation might conclude, what rate tariffs might be set at or when they would go into effect. It would all be figured out in “Trump time,” one official said repeatedly, which apparently meant quickly.
The potential tariffs would help to protect the domestic copper industry that the White House says has been undermined by unfair trade practices by other countries and is struggling to compete. Copper is, among other things, an essential component in the building of ships, aircrafts and tanks. The Trump administration framed it on Tuesday as an issue of national defense as much as an economic one, saying that the metals would be needed for electric vehicles and A.I. and that geopolitical turmoil could sever the United States from needed supplies.
“Tariffs can help build back our American copper industry, if necessary, and strengthen our national defense,” Mr. Lutnick said. “American industries depend on copper, and it should be made in America — no exemptions, no exceptions.”
“It’s time for copper to come home,” he added.
Like the tariffs on steel and aluminum that President Trump is promising to reinstate next month, copper tariffs will raise costs for a variety of other industries that depend on the metal and could generate pushback from them. That includes makers of automobiles, electronics and telecommunications equipment, as well as construction companies, which use copper for plumbing, roof construction and other uses.
The tariffs could also spur new fights with countries that ship metal to the United States. America’s largest foreign source of copper is Chile, which sends $4.63 billion of the metal to the United States each year, followed more distantly by Canada, Peru, Mexico and the Democratic Republic of Congo. China is also a major global producer of copper but sends relatively little to the United States because of previously imposed tariffs.
White House officials say that Chinese copper production has still driven down global prices and that China had been snapping up copper resources globally.
Peter Navarro, a senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, said in the call with reporters Tuesday that China had “long used industrial overcapacity and dumping as an economic weapon to dominate global markets” and systematically undercut competitors from other countries.
“It is now using that same model to gain control of the world’s copper markets,” he said.
Asked how the president had chosen to take up the issue of copper, one of the Trump administration officials on the call said that Mr. Trump foresees issues that others might miss. The official made a reference to an interview from the 1980s, in which Mr. Trump talked with Oprah Winfrey about trade with Japan. The official said that exchange presaged how the president would think about retaliation against foreign governments that were “cheating” the United States.
Mr. Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on a variety of imports, including steel, aluminum, copper, automobiles and pharmaceuticals. He also came within hours earlier this month of imposing tariffs on Canada and Mexico, saying the countries were not doing enough to stop the flow of drugs and migrants into the United States. He paused those tariffs for a month, but said this week they would go into effect March 4 as planned.
Mr. Trump also imposed an additional 10 percent tariff on all products from China, which sparked retaliatory tariffs from the Chinese. And he has introduced a plan to dramatically reform U.S. tariff rates on other countries, by changing them to reciprocate the tariff levels that other countries charge the United States, as well as capturing certain trade behaviors he deems unfair.
The copper investigation will be carried out under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, which allows the president to impose tariffs on foreign products in the interest of national security. By law, the commerce secretary has 270 days to present findings from the investigation to the president.
Copper prices have climbed this year, ahead of expected tariffs and continued resilience in manufacturing activity, according to a note earlier this month from analysts at Citi. The United States consumed about $17 billion of copper in 2024, and imported about 45 percent of that amount, the analysts said.
Rebecca F. Elliott contributed reporting.
