The highlights this week: Copper prices soar amid growing global demand and U.S. tariff threats, Colombia and Ecuador have a trade spat , and Mexico’s president makes an unusual demand of a K-pop group .
Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Latin America Brief.
The highlights this week: Copper prices soar amid growing global demand and U.S. tariff threats, Colombia and Ecuador have a trade spat, and Mexico’s president makes an unusual demand of a K-pop group.
Sign up to receive Latin America Brief in your inbox every Friday.
The Mineral of the Moment
Latin American policymakers have long pitched potential investors and geopolitical partners on access to mineral riches. The region is home to many raw materials that are essential to the green transition, including lithium, which is used in batteries.
In recent years, the region’s lithium deposits have attracted investments and attention from the United States, Europe, and China. Lithium prices jumped more than sixfold from 2021 to 2023 amid a supply crunch, but they have since returned to prior levels.
Now, one mineral of the moment is copper. Due to global electrification and rising power usage, worldwide demand for copper is expected to outstrip supply by 30 percent by 2035, Jonathan Price of Teck Resources told FP’s Ravi Agrawal last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The Trump administration also imposed tariffs on some copper products in 2025 and said it might adjust them in 2026. As companies around the world stockpiled copper in anticipation of the levies, its price jumped to a record high this month.
Regardless of Trump’s e
Continue Reading on Foreign Policy
This preview shows approximately 15% of the article. Read the full story on the publisher's website to support quality journalism.