President Donald Trump’s plan to slap a 50% tariff on copper imports is exposing the tangled web of regulations that have long stifled America’s ability to mine and refine its critical minerals.
The new tariff is set to take effect in August and will target refined and semi-finished copper, which is essential to everything from power grids to military equipment. The move builds on Trump’s June decision to impose 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum, as part of a broader effort to boost domestic mineral production.
While the Trump administration is trying to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign copper, experts say a surge in domestic production won’t happen without major regulatory reform.
“If we want to develop a domestic industry, overhauling the permitting process should be the number one priority,” Alexander Stevens, manager of policy and communications at the Institute for Energy Research, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. (RELATED: How America Can Break Free From China’s Minerals Stranglehold)
Copper has critical applications in nearly all sectors of the economy, including those tied to national security.
Building construction accounts for the largest share of U.S. copper consumption at 42%, followed by transportation equipment, consumer products and industrial machinery at 18%, 10% and 7%, respectively, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
“Copper, scrap copper, and copper’s derivative products play a vital role in defense applications, infrastructure, and emerging technologies, including clean energy, electric vehicles, and advanced electronics. The United States faces significant vulnerabilities in the copper supply chain, with increasing reliance on foreign sources for mined, smelted, and refined copper,” the Trump administration said in February when it first announced an inquiry into the national security implications of copper.
Despite abundant copper reserves, the U.S. imports 45% of the refined copper it consumes, primarily from Chile, Canada, Mexico and Peru. Moreover, the lengthy process of establishing new mines, which takes more than 30 years on average, hampers efforts to boost domestic production.
Even with a stable supply of domestically mined copper, the U.S. operates only a limited number of smelting facilities, while China controls approximately 44% of global copper smelting capacity.
In 1997, there were 35 mines and 11 smelters in the U.S., according to Bloomberg. Today, there are just 25 mines and three smelters.
“Most of that is due to the web of overlapping federal laws: National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act. Each of those has lengthy public review processes, and each of those processes invites litigation, which stretches out the permitting processes even longer,” said Stevens.
The Resolution Copper mine is a prime example of how bureaucratic delays can stall important projects.
The copper deposit was discovered in 1995, and Resolution Copper formally entered the federal permitting process in 2004. However, more than two decades later, the mine still hasn’t broken ground, bogged down by complex regulatory hurdles under NEPA and lawsuits from Native American tribes and environmental groups.
“You can tariff things as much as you want, but if there’s a 10-20 year permitting process, it’s going to take a long time for us to develop anything,” Stevens said.
The Trump administration says that it is taking a comprehensive approach to revitalizing the production of copper and other critical minerals.
Trump issued an executive order in April to fast-track the Resolution Copper mine, among other mining projects. Moreover, the Supreme Court in May rejected a lawsuit challenging the project, bringing Resolution Copper one step closer to potentially becoming the world’s largest copper mine.
“America cannot be reliant on foreign imports of the copper that’s necessary for key military hardware, infrastructure, and everyday electronics,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai told the DCNF. “The Trump administration is committed to reshoring manufacturing that’s critical to our national and economic security with a two-pronged approach of tariffs and a full suite of supply-side reforms like deregulation and the pro-growth tax cuts of The One, Big, Beautiful Bill.”
Without deeper regulatory reforms, however, the tariff is likely to cause supply disruptions and hurt consumers, Competitive Enterprise Institute senior economist Ryan Young told the DCNF.
“[The Trump administration] has been active in reducing mining regulations,” Young said. “There’s been some relief there, but it’s not enough to offset the impact of a tariff being implemented with just three weeks’ notice.”
Young warned that “even in the best-case scenario,” the U.S. could face “several years of copper shortages and higher prices, which can affect all sorts of industries.”
Stevens said that although the administration has taken steps to ease regulations and streamline approvals for new mining operations, lasting reform will ultimately require action from Congress.
“There has been a lot of discussion about a permitting bill coming through Congress now that the reconciliation is wrapped up,” Stevens said. “To the extent that they can make changes, they’re going to have to get 60 votes in the Senate, so it’s going to be a tough task.”
