In Cananea and Nacozari, copper never sleeps. The earth opens, the rock creaks, and the metal flows. But it doesn’t head toward Texas or Arizona. It goes straight to the Pacific. It goes to China and Japan, where it commands higher prices, is refined, and is consumed. While Donald Trump launches a new tariff on this metal, Mexico remains motionless. Not out of indifference, but out of calculation, because the punishment has little effect on it.
The Republican measure, in effect since August 1, imposes a 50% tariff on imports of semi-finished copper products: tubes, sheets, wires, rods, and accessories. But it leaves out what’s truly important. It excludes minerals and concentrates, scrap, and refined copper.
Source: expansion
