President Donald Trump said he planned to implement a 50% duty on copper imports as part of a set of looming sectoral tariffs, while also indicating he could offer pharmaceutical manufacturers at least a year before applying a crippling 200% tariff on their foreign-made products.

Trump told reporters during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday he was still planning tariffs on select industries, including drugs, semiconductors and metals.

“I believe the tariff on copper we’re going to make it 50%,” Trump said when asked by a reporter what the rate on those products would be. Copper futures in New York surged as much as 17% after Trump’s comments, the largest intraday gain in data going back to at least 1988.

Trump said he expected to offer pharmaceutical manufacturers some time to bring their operations to the U.S. before slapping tariffs of as much as 200% on their products.

Trump has already announced investigations under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 on each of those products, arguing that a flood of foreign imports was threatening national security. After those efforts are concluded, Trump is expected to move forward with the levies.

That effort is separate from Trump’s other move to announce new country-specific tariff rates, which would not apply to products hit under his Section 232 efforts. Trump earlier Tuesday insisted those country-specific tariffs would move forward at the beginning of August.

Trump’s directive also comes as the U.S. and the rest of the world expect a dramatic surge over the coming decade in demand for the industrial metal, with data centers, automobile companies, power companies and others scouring the globe for necessary feedstock to increase electric vehicle output and electric grid capacity. Retooling power and transportation systems to run on renewable energy will require far more copper than the companies that produce it are currently committed to deliver.

The U.S. consumed about 1.6 million tons of refined copper in 2024, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. While the U.S. has significant mines, producing some 850,000 tons of primary copper last year, it still relies on imports from key trade allies to fill the need. Chile is the largest import source, accounting for 38% of total import volumes, followed by Canada and Mexico at 28% and 8%, respectively. Net copper imports account for 36% of demand, according to Morgan Stanley research.

Trump has been talking about pharmaceuticals since he began rolling out his tariff agenda, despite industry concerns that duties could wreak havoc on supply chains, exacerbate drug shortages and drive up costs for Americans.

He has long criticized foreign production of medicine as a threat to national security and raised the specter of tariffs to encourage drugmakers to manufacture domestically. Companies followed with a flurry of announcements about multibillion-dollar manufacturing investments in the U.S.

Any tariffs that are imposed are expected to have an outsize effect on Ireland, where a $54 billion trade surplus with the U.S. helped spur Trump’s wrath. The imbalance, heavily driven by pharmaceuticals, stems from the country’s favorable tax regime and highly educated workforce.