Following Investigation of Copper Imports, Trump Administration Takes Actions Targeting Imports and Domestic Sales

On August 19, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security added copper to its list of high-priority sectors for enforcement under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), which imposes a rebuttable presumption that any goods linked to the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR) region (as discussed further below) are presumed to be made with forced labor and therefore prohibited from entry into the United States.

Below we review the key findings of the Section 232 investigation, the Trump administration’s responsive actions, and the UFLPA prioritization of copper, and offer perspective on their implications.

Section 232Tariffs
President Trump imposed a 50% tariff on the copper content of semi-finished copper and intensive copper derivative products (including powders, flakes, rods, wires, pipes etc.), effective August 1, 2025. The list of Harmonized Tariff Schedule codes subject to the Section 232 tariffs is available in the Annex of the Proclamation.

As with steel and aluminum imports subject to Section 232 duties, the non-copper content of imports subject to the Section 232 tariffs is subject to “reciprocal tariffs.” The 50% tariff will likewise be based on the value of the copper content, calculated in accordance with the principles of the valuation statute, 19 U.S.C. 1401a. Specifically, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has advised that the value of the copper content is the “total price paid or payable for that content, which is: the total payment made/to be made for the copper content by the buyer to, or for the benefit of, the seller of the copper content.” This would typically be based on the invoice paid by the buyer.

If the value of the copper content cannot be determined, importers must report the duty based on the total entered value of the product. For duties based on the copper content, CBP has advised that importers “must keep documentation to support reported values and provide [the documentation] to CBP upon request.” Examples of relevant documentation include the bills of materials for the production of goods, invoices for materials used in the production of goods, and accounting documentation to substantiate the reported values.

If both the Section 232 tariffs on copper and derivative products and the Section 232 tariffs on automobiles and parts apply to the same product, the Section 232 copper tariffs will not apply; in other words, the automobile/parts tariffs take precedence. In addition, mined and refined products, such as ores, concentrates, anodes and cathodes, which provide feedstock for semi-finished products (subject to the Section 232 tariffs), are exempted from tariffs. However, the President directed the Secretary of Commerce to provide the President “with an update on domestic copper markets, including refining capacity and the market for refined copper in the United States” by June 30, 2026. This report is intended to inform the President’s determination as to whether to impose phase in tariffs starting in 2027 at 15% and increasing to 30% starting in 2028. 

The scope of derivative products subject to tariffs under Section 232 could be expanded through an inclusion process that Commerce is required to establish under the Proclamation within 90 days or by approximately the end of October 2025. This process may be similar to the one established for steel and aluminum under which requesters (including the domestic industry and associations) made requests for derivative products to be included in the Section 232 action and stakeholders had an opportunity to submit comments in response. Pursuant to this process, on August 19, 2025, Commerce added a wide range of downstream products to the Section 232 steel and aluminum actions. Commerce could take a similar approach with respect to copper.

While the tariffs are currently universal, the Proclamation provided that the United States “intends to coordinate with the United Kingdom to adopt a structured, negotiated approach to addressing the national security threat in the copper sector.” This may result in quotas and joint actions to address the underlying national security threats, such as overcapacity and other issues noted below.

Domestic Sales Requirements
Under the Proclamation, the President required the Secretary of Commerce to take all appropriate action to implement domestic sales requirements of:

1. 25% for high-quality copper scrap, which is used as feedstock by semi-fabricators to produce semi-finished copper products and by secondary refiners to produce cathodes. Commerce also recommended export controls for high-quality scrap.
2. 25% for copper input materials, such as ores, concentrates, mattes, cathodes, and anodes starting in 2027, which are used as feedstock by smelters and refiners, and semi-fabricators.

These requirements are authorized under allocations authority under DPA Title I, Priorities and Allocations under which the President, or a delegated agency head, may allocate materials, services and facilities to promote the national defense. Per Commerce’s Defense Priorities and Allocations regulations, types of allocation orders include:

1. Set-aside, which is an “official action that requires a person to reserve materials, services, or facilities capacity in anticipation of the receipt of rated orders.”
2. Directive, which is an “official action that requires a person to take or refrain from taking certain actions in accordance with its provisions.”
3. Allotment, which is “official action that specifies the maximum quantity of a material, service, or facility authorized for a specific use to promote the national defense.”  

Allocation orders that “control the general distribution of any material in the civilian market” require the President to find–or approve a finding by an agency head–that:

1. The material subject to the allocation action “is a scarce and critical material essential to the national defense,” and
2. “The requirements of the national defense for such material cannot otherwise be met without creating a significant dislocation of the normal distribution of such material in the civilian market to such a degree as to create appreciable hardship.”

In this case, the President found that copper input materials and high-quality scrap meet the criteria above.

Broadly, the copper value chain has five steps: mining, smelting, refining, semi-fabrication and fabrication. Taken together, the responsive actions initially target the semi-fabrication segment of the supply chain through imposing tariffs on semi-finished and derivative products and facilitating the availability of feedstock for semi-fabricators to produce semi-finished products. The phased-in actions target the mining, smelting, and refining stages of the supply chain.

UFLPA Prioritization of Copper
In addition to the responsive actions taken under Section 232, the Trump administration also prioritized copper (in all forms) for enforcement under the UFLPA.

On August 19, 2025, the DHS published the latest update to the UFPLA Strategy (“2025 Update”), as required under the UFLPA and developed by the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force (FLETF). As we discuss here, the UFLPA, enacted in 2021, imposes a rebuttable presumption that any goods mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part in XUAR, or by entities identified on the UFLPA Entity List, are presumed to be made with forced labor and therefore prohibited from entry into the United States under Section 307 of the Tariff Act of 1930. There is no de minimis exception, which means that products incorporating any percentage of XUAR sourced product may be detained upon entry into the United States.

The 2025 Update included copper as an enforcement priority.  Identified sectors are subject to a higher level of scrutiny, increasing the chances that goods incorporating listed products face detention. Identified sectors are subject to a higher level of scrutiny, increasing the chances that goods incorporating listed products face detention.

Implications
As discussed above, the Section 232 actions target the semi-fabrication and fabrication segments of the supply chain and potential phased-in actions would target upstream stages. Given the potential for expansion of the covered derivative products through the inclusion processes, importers and businesses should assess the copper content of their products, consistent with customs valuation rules.  

The inclusion of copper in the 2025 UFLPA Strategy underscores the Trump administration’s effort to target imports, including of copper, through multiple policy levers. Measures to identify and mitigate forced labor in supply chains continue to promulgate worldwide, including in the EU, Canada, Mexico, Japan and the UK. Also, the fact sheet for the trade deal between the United States and Indonesia provides that Indonesia “has committed to adopt and implement a forced labor import ban.” As these laws take hold, businesses should proactively assess their supply chains, enhance due diligence processes (particularly for sectors that have been prioritized such as copper), and prepare to comply with shifting international standards aimed at eradicating forced labor from global commerce.

Finally, these measures come at the backdrop of multilateral and plurilateral initiatives to secure mineral supply chains. As we discuss in our article here, the G7 released an Action Plan (which was endorsed by Australia, India and the Republic of Korea) in June 2025, focused on developing standards-based markets for critical minerals (which include labor standards among others), mobilizing capital to support and partnerships among relevant funding and financing agencies of G7 countries and with resource rich developing countries, and promoting innovative technologies including for processing, licensing, recycling, and substitution. The United States is hosting the Conference on Critical Materials and Minerals in September 2025, which is expected to make progress on these lines of effort. Also, G7 countries are working on a Critical Minerals Production Alliance “working with trusted international partners to guarantee supply for advanced manufacturing and defen[s]e.” It will be important to monitor the interplay between any responsive measures following the Section 232 investigation and these initiatives.