Donald Trump has said that the US would impose 50 per cent tariffs on copper imports and threatened to set 200 per cent tariffs on pharmaceuticals after a transition period that could last more than a year.
“We’ll be announcing something very soon on pharmaceuticals,” Trump said during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday. “We’re going to give people about a year, year and a half to come in, and after that they’re gonna be tariffed if they have to bring the pharmaceuticals into the country at a very high rate, like 200 per cent.”
Earlier on Tuesday, the US president said that the tariff deadline of August 1 will not be extended.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote:
As per letters sent to various countries yesterday, in addition to letters that will be sent today, tomorrow, and for the next short period of time, TARIFFS WILL START BEING PAID ON AUGUST 1, 2025. There has been no change to this date, and there will be no change. In other words, all money will be due and payable starting AUGUST 1, 2025 — No extensions will be granted. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
Trump on Monday extended the deadline for the tariffs to go into effect by three weeks to just after midnight on August 1, while also announcing tariff rates for more than a dozen of the US’s trading partners.
As countries raced to respond to Trump’s renewed threats, the EU said it hoped to sign a temporary deal with the US this week that would keep tariffs at 10 per cent.
But Germany’s finance minister warned that the bloc stood ready to impose retaliatory measures against the US if the two parties failed to reach a “fair” deal.
Both Japan and South Korea indicated they would try to negotiate, after they were included in letters sent by the US president to 14 trading partners on Monday setting out the tariffs that would come into effect in August.
