People familiar with the matter: White House copper tariff plan stalls

BlockBeats news, September 10, according to Reuters, two people familiar with the matter said the White House has not yet made a decision on refined copper tariffs, and officials are weighing the potential benefits of encouraging domestic mining against the risk that higher copper prices could drive up manufacturing costs.

The hesitation comes as the administration is increasingly focused on affordability ahead of the November midterm elections, with Trump and Republican lawmakers under pressure to show their economic policies are lowering, rather than raising, costs for American consumers and businesses. Copper prices have surged to record highs on expectations that Trump will impose tariffs on refined copper products such as cathode copper as well as copper concentrate produced at mines. Traders and industrial buyers are rushing to build inventories in the United States to stock up before the new tariffs take effect, creating one of the world's largest copper stockpiles.

A White House official said the administration has not made a final decision on tariffs and confirmed that the Commerce Department submitted its latest update to Trump before the White House's June 30 deadline. "The administration continues to evaluate all options to bring copper and other critical manufacturing back to the United States," the official said. Those remarks suggest tariffs are not a foregone conclusion, even though the market expects the United States may expand existing tariffs to refined copper.