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US buyers of copper will pay a high price if President Donald Trump pushes ahead with a 50% tariff on refined metal as opposed to copper products such as wiring, according to officials in Chile.
While Chile hasn’t received any formal notification and is unaware of the details of the measure, Mining Minister Aurora Williams noted that US manufacturing is dependent on Chilean copper.
Chile accounts for roughly 70% of copper shipped to the US, with state-owned Codelco representing most of that. Still, it would be US buyers — makers of intermediate forms of copper such as wires, rods and tubes — that would pay the levy. They would have little choice as America relies on imports for almost half of its copper needs.
Chile ships “top-notch refined copper with high levels of traceability, so we are interested in that being duly recognized not just in the US but the whole market,” the minister told reporters in Santiago on Thursday. “Chilean mining production, in all its gambits, has high responsibility, is highly valued and highly necessary for manufacturing in the US.”
Chile has been seeking a tariff exemption in its discussions with US officials, Williams said. “That is a topic that’s on the table.”
US buyers would incur higher costs if the tariff is applied to refined metal, Antofagasta Plc Chief Executive Officer Ivan Arriagada said on the sidelines of the same industry event.
“Undoubtedly that would put pressure on makers of copper products in the US, and so it is a concern,” he said.
For Chilean suppliers like Antofagasta, the US represents about a 10th of total copper sales. China is by far the biggest buyer.
The copper market is likely to remain volatile, Arriagada said. Once tariffs are introduced, consumers in the US would draw from stockpiles that have built up ahead of time, impacting demand.
Beyond that, “copper continues to be in relative scarcity,” he said.
(Adds additional comment by Antofagasta CEO)
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