Copper Tariffs Won’t Bring Back US Manufacturing
The administration’s incoherent approach to trade policy is making it harder for the US to have a modern industrial economy.
Does America really need more of these?
Photographer: Martin Bernetti/AFP
President Donald Trump’s proposed 50% tariff on copper imports is emblematic of the administration’s incoherent approach to economic policy: Soaked in nostalgia for America’s industrial past, it pursues strategies that will make it harder for US manufacturers to succeed now and in the future.
In announcing his policy on Truth Social, Trump noted that copper “is necessary for Semiconductors, Aircraft, Ships, Ammunition, Data Centers, Lithium-ion Batteries, Radar Systems, Missile Defense Systems, and even, Hypersonic Weapons, of which we are building many.”