President Trump Orders Investigation to Consider Imposing a Global Copper Import Tariff

On February 25, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order directing the US Department of Commerce to investigate potential national security risks of copper imports, which could eventually lead to the imposition of tariffs on all copper imports. The investigation will encompass all forms of copper imports, including raw mined copper, copper concentrates, refined copper, copper alloys, scrap copper, and certain derivative products and will cover all import sources. The United States imports about half of the copper it consumes, with the largest sources of imports being Canada, Mexico, Chile, Peru, and Germany. The Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) will conduct the investigation under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, a law that empowers the president to restrict imports of products that are found to threaten to impair national security.

Next steps for the investigation

The BIS investigation will take up to 270 days to complete and will seek to determine "whether the importation of the article in question is in such quantities or under such circumstances as to threaten to impair the national security."  Since a Section 232 action is based on national security concerns rather than economic concerns, the government is not required to establish a market access violation or injury to use Section 232. As part of the investigation, BIS will gather public comments and hold hearings, providing opportunities for stakeholders to share input on the investigation. BIS will provide more information about its plans for the investigation in a future Federal Register notice.

Upon receiving BIS' determination, the president may then take action to "adjust the imports of an article and its derivatives" or take other non-trade actions as deemed appropriate. Trump administration officials are suggesting the intended outcome of the investigation is to enable the imposition of tariffs, though an official decision will not be made until after BIS completes its investigation. The executive order also suggests that imposition of export controls and the creation of new domestic production incentives could be part of the policy response. A statement issued by Trump after the executive order signing compared the new copper action to the Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs, which he significantly expanded in two February 10 proclamations. In the statement, Trump said that all copper used in the United States should be produced in the United States, without exception.

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We provide below a list of partners and senior attorneys within the Global International Trade Practice of White & Case. Please contact any of them with questions about this report or other trade issues.

• Washington, DC: David Bond (Partner); Ryan Brady (Partner); Cristina Brayton-Lewis (Partner); Jay Campbell (Partner); Nicole Erb (Partner); Farhad Jalinous (Partner); David Lim (Partner); Gregory Spak (Partner)
• Mexico: Francisco de Rosenzweig (Partner); Carlos Vejar (Local Partner)
• Brussels: James Killick (Partner); Sara Nordin (Partner)
• Geneva: Jasper Wauters (Partner); Charles Julien (Partner)
• London: Chris Thomas (Counsel); Ed Pearson (Senior Associate)
• Paris: Orion Berg (Partner)
• Tokyo: William Moran (Partner)
• Dubai: Marcus Sohlberg (Counsel)

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