US President Donald Trump said the White House was “very busy” crafting its trade policy as the clock ticks down on his self-imposed August 1 deadline.
At that point, America could fundamentally reshape the way it does business around the world.
Trump signed executive actions on Wednesday (Thursday AEST) imposing a 50 per cent tariff on Brazil, a 50 per cent tariff on certain copper products and suspending a tax perk for all countries that allowed cheap packages to fly into the US duty-free.
He also announced in a Truth Social post that his administration has a trade framework in place with Pakistan, although details were thin. Trump said the agreement, if completed, would include developing Pakistan’s oil reserves with a yet-to-be-named oil company.
And Trump said his administration would meet a South Korean trade delegation on Wednesday afternoon. South Korea has been long expected to be among the next countries in line to hammer out a trade framework with the United States.
Taken together, the moves represented a significant expansion of the Trump administration’s trade war, which could increase the prices that US consumers pay on certain goods.
In that letter, Trump threatened the hefty tariff if Brazil did not end its trial against right-wing former president, Jair Bolsonaro.
The order that Trump signed on Wednesday, which increases Brazil’s tariff by 40 percentage points, effective early next month, accuses the Brazilian government of “serious human rights abuses that have undermined the rule of law in Brazil”.
The new tariff on Brazil appeared to be spurred by non-economic matters.
Bolsonaro, who has bragged about his closeness with Trump, is facing trial for allegedly attempting to stage a coup against Lula.
Trump has publicly objected to that proceeding, and his order alleged Bolsonaro’s prosecution was “politically motivated”.
“The Order finds that the government of Brazil’s politically motivated persecution, intimidation, harassment, censorship, and prosecution of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and thousands of his supporters are serious human rights abuses that have undermined the rule of law in Brazil,” the order reads.
The announcement of the increased tariff rate comes the same day that the United States is sanctioning Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, 12 days after announcing visa restrictions against him and other court officials over Bolsonaro’s trial.
In a separate presidential proclamation, Trump imposed “universal 50 per cent tariffs on imports of semi-finished copper products,” including pipes, wires, and sheets, and “copper-intensive derivative products,” the White House said in a fact sheet.
It characterised the move as critical for US national security, saying that Trump was “levelling the playing field for US copper businesses to support a strong domestic copper industry.”
Those new tariffs will go into effect August 1, and include exceptions for copper products already subject to the president’s auto tariffs.
Copper is a crucial component in a variety of goods, including electronics, machinery and cars, and tariffs on the source material could make those products more expensive.
The US imported $US17 billion ($26.4 billion) worth of copper last year, according to US Commerce Department data. Chile was the largest foreign supplier of the metal, shipping $US6 billion worth of it to the US last year.
Investors and businesses had largely been anticipating a copper tariff, but were uncertain about the scope of the tariffs and which forms of the red metal it would apply to.
The tariffs will impact semi-finished copper products such as copper pipes and copper-intensive derivate products such as cables, the White House said.
However, the tariffs will not impact refined copper, a critical input for manufacturing. Copper prices in New York plunged 19 per cent on Wednesday as markets were relieved the White House exempted refined copper.
“This announcement indicates the copper tariffs are much more limited in nature than the market originally understood,” Rob Haworth, senior investment strategist at US Bank Asset Management, said in an email.
Copper prices were on pace for the biggest single-day drop on record, according to FactSet.
Prices had surged to record highs this year as companies stockpiled copper ahead of Trump’s tariffs.
De minimis loophole closed
Finally, Trump suspended a tax perk for all countries known as the “de minimis exemption,” which allowed duty-free shipments of goods worth $US800 or less.
Trump had previously targeted the exemption in the US-China trade war, but the latest move closes the option of back-door shipments through other countries. That will particularly impact e-commerce giants such as Shein and Temu.
The executive order noted that Americans returning from travel abroad could still bring back up to $US200 in personal items or could receive gifts valued at $US100 or less duty-free.
Customs and Border Protection previously told CNN it processed “nearly 4 million duty-free de minimis shipments a day.”
Research indicates that a majority of those shipments come from China and Hong Kong. In total, over the last fiscal year, CBP said 1.36 billion packages came to the US under the de minimis exemption.
The Trump administration slashed the de minimis exemption on China in May, cutting the tariff on those cheap packages from 120 per cent to 54 per cent and slashing the rate from 145 per cent to 30 per cent for packages from commercial carriers.
As part of Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” the de minimis rule was slated to be repealed for all countries in July 2027, and the bill even established a civil penalty up to $US10,000 for more than one violation of the rule.
That was expedited with Trump’s suspension, which will be effective August 29.
