Aluminium pays the price, copper gets a pass – here’s solving the US tariff puzzle
The Trump administration’s latest tariff move has left a glaring question: why has aluminium been slapped with a punishing 50 per cent duty, while copper sails into US ports untaxed? At first glance, both metals are strategic, energy-intensive to produce, and integral to manufacturing. Yet Washington’s selective hammering is something that raises several questions.
Washington’s contrasting policy agenda – aluminium vs copper
The official rationale is rooted in two strategic objectives: reviving domestic smelting capacity and cutting reliance on imports. Aluminium ticks both boxes. In the United States, primary aluminium production has collapsed over three decades - from 3.35 million tonnes in 1995 to 675,600 tonnes in 2024, representing an 80 per cent decline. To fill the void in the market, import dependence has surged, with the US bringing in 3.6 million tonnes of crude aluminium last year alone.
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