The US President Donald Trump goes, while the workers are responding to the US Steel Corporation -Irin Works in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, USA on May 30, 2025.
Leah Millis | Reuters
As tariffs of President Donald Trump against more than a dozen countries, new concerns about the impending country -specific trade measures that are often overlooked are the levies for certain products and raw materials that are already available or could soon come.
These so-called tariffs of § 232, which have already been announced for cars, steel and aluminum and continues to be limited for copper and other objects and the US trade partners in order to navigate a constantly developed trading environment.
Trump said on Tuesday that he would impose 50% tariffs on copper imports, twice as high as before what he had previously swum for the valuable goods. He also said that he would soon announce tariffs “at a very high speed” for medicines.
Trump's announcement made the copper prices take away, and the metal recorded its highest one-day win since 1989. The Copper Futures Treaty for September concluded 13%on Tuesday with $ 5.6855 per pound.
The threats were the latest signs of the willingness of the President to use sector-specific tariffs in order to gain leverage through trading partners and to re-change the US economy.
The announcement took place one day after Trump had introduced the strong collective bargaining prices for imports from 14 countries on the 1st August: Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Laos, Myanmar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Serbia, Cambodia and Thailand.
The letters should put the pressure on the US trading partners to get to the table before the deadline on August 1st.
However, since the negotiations of the federal states are still in the floating and a few nations are still pushing on carve-outs, with different degrees of receptivity from the white house-sind the sector-specific tariff rates already trading partners and US consumers.
South Africa and Kazakhstan, two countries that Trump met on Monday with collective bargaining prices, are both important aluminum manufacturers, while Japan and South Korea are also on the list of large steel producers.
“Mutual tariffs make headlines, but the product -specific tariffs will still have a significant impact on the domestic market,” Mike Lowell, partner of the Reed Smith law firm, told CNBC.
High prices and no delays
Last month, Trump announced that he doubled the tariffs for steel and aluminum imports for most countries to 50% the following day.
Steel and aluminum are essential materials for durable goods such as refrigerators and cars. But they are also the main components of smaller objects that Americans use every day, such as zippers and kitchen dishes.
The steel and aluminum tariffs are a continuation of Trump's first trade agenda when he implemented a tariff of 25% on steel and 10% tariff for aluminum imports in 2018, which led to almost immediate price tips, reports Reuters.
However, they also differ in an important way from its first tariffs. First, the rates are much higher – in some cases their previous levels double. Second, today's collective bargaining prices are presented via other customs tasks.
Read more CNBC policy reporting
“The use of § 232 Together with other instruments, the collective bargaining landscape increases further complexity and increases the importance of country negotiations to obtain exceptions,” wrote Iacob Koch-Weser, deputy director of global trade and investments at BCG, last month.
Trump has repeatedly cited Section 232 of the massive trading administrator law of 1962 to justify his sector -specific tariffs. This measure enables the president to adapt the tariff rates unilaterally if America's national security is threatened.
Another law, § 301, is used to impose tariffs on certain products from China. Some of them were imposed during Trump's first term and remained largely during the term of his successor, President Joe Biden.
Subaru Sport Utility Vehicles and Tesla electric vehicles that are waiting for shipping will be parked in a port on July 7, 2025 in Yokohama, Japan.
Tomohiro Ohsumi | Getty pictures
Another sector that was hit hard with certain tariffs are cars and auto parts. This rate of 25% has a disproportionate Japan and South Korea, two leading automobile exporters in the USA.
The White House is still considering whether some companies are supposed to grant exceptions to the auto tariffs, partly in response to intensive lobbying by industry groups, CNBC reported.
The White House in April signed an executive order that prevented the auto tariffs from stacked with other taxes such as aluminum and steel and that the auto industry brought a certain relief.
In view of the fact that supply chains often have delayed reactions to tariffs, Trump's transfer to auto parts may not be fully felt for years.
Broad presidential authority
Experts have also found that Trump's legal authority to determine and adapt tariffs is more firm in terms of sector -specific imports than for its country -specific “mutual” tariffs.
“The tariffs of § 232 are central to President Trump's tariff strategy,” said Lowell from Reed Smith.
“You are not the goal of the pending legal dispute, and it is more likely that you will survive a legal challenge and continue the next presidential administration.
In order to justify, cross -border tariffs at the beginning of this year, Trump has appointed emergency powers that are currently being challenged before a federal court. If the President loses this case, he can decide to return to sector tumors to use the economic power of the United States.
Trump already has the opportunity to impose additional sector -specific tariffs for agricultural products, iPhones, trucks and other objects, although no measures have yet been reported.
Trump had previously instructed the trade department to create a national security examination of § 232 in both copper and wooden mode, with the results due in November.
But his Tuesday comments indicate that the steep levies could come much earlier.
“Today we are making copper,” said Trump about the goods that make up most of the electrical cabling in American houses.
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