The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday imposed hefty new tariffs on imported copper products, though the duties largely spare Canada's mining and refining industry. The Globe's Jeffrey Jones writes that Mr. Trump set the tariff for a range of copper products at 50 per cent starting Aug. 1, citing national security concerns for his latest attempt to bolster his country's manufacturing sector by raising trade barriers. The White House said it will slap the duty on copper pipes, wires, rods, sheets and tubes as well as derivative products such as pipe fittings, cables and electrical components. However, copper concentrate and anodes and cathodes, semi-processed materials that companies in Canada produce and export in large volumes, as well as copper scrap, are exempt for the time being. Copper is one of the most widely used metals, and seen as crucial to a future low-carbon economy for its use in such things as electric vehicles and clean energy. The U.S. is unable to wean itself off copper imports from Canada because it does not produce enough for its own manufacturing needs, so exempting the materials from tariffs protects Amercian companies from surging costs.