President Donald Trump plans to impose a 50% tax on copper imports in an effort to boost U.S. production.
The tariff takes effect next month on top of the existing 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum.
The announcement came as Secretary of State Marco Rubio was in Asia meeting with world leaders who could also face steeper taxes next month if they do not make deals with the U.S.
“Anywhere in the world I would have travelled this week, they got a letter,” Rubio said in Malaysia Thursday.
Rubio praised the letters about two dozen countries received from President Trump this week, threatening them with higher tariffs if they do not reach an agreement by Aug. 1.
“Some of these countries got a letter where their tariff rate is lower than some of their neighbors or maybe a country somewhere else in the world so it might even serve as an advantage,” Rubio said.
Two major trading partners in Asia, Japan and South Korea, would face a 25% tariff rate next month, which would impact the prices of cars, electronics and machinery.
“This is a globalized effort to reset U.S. trade in a way that’s beneficial to the United States,” Rubio said.
Back home on Capitol Hill, lawmakers argued Trump administration policies like this are only hurting Americans right now.
“Grocery prices are nowhere near going down with the Trump tariffs,” said U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.).
Senate Democrats said that’s partly because the tariffs are impacting U.S. farmers at a time when the administration is also reducing their workforce with immigration raids.
“You have a president who promised to bring down the cost of food, and he’s betraying that promise and betraying it in heartbreaking fashion by deporting a lot of hardworking people,” said U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).
A bipartisan effort in the Senate to block President Trump’s sweeping tariffs failed back in April.
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