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By Daina Beth Solomon
SANTIAGO (Reuters) - The CEO of copper producer Freeport-McMoRan said on Monday she was concerned about the health of the global economy and the possibility of recession and inflation in the wake of U.S. tariffs rolled out last week.
The comments from the world's largest publicly traded copper producer join the chorus of concern from top executives since U.S. President Donald Trump imposed sweeping tariffs ranging from 10% to 50%, triggering losses in financial markets and ratcheting up tensions with China and the European Union.
"We can't ignore the fact that a trade war could cause people to not invest, to not buy, to change their patterns and affect demand," CEO Kathleen Quirk told the CESCO conference in Santiago, one of the copper industry's largest annual gatherings.
Copper is used widely across the global economy in power generation, electronics and construction, a ubiquity from which its nickname "Dr. Copper" is derived.
Although Quirk noted that mining companies needed to wait and see how the tariff situation unfolds, she said the recent copper price drop was not good long-term for the industry, which depends on multi-billion dollar investments.
Quirk told Reuters last month that while U.S. copper tariffs could boost Freeport's profits by $400 million annually, she was worried about their impact on the global economy, comments that she reiterated on Monday.
"All of us will rely on a market that will be growing in demand and not subject to these big recessions that we've seen over time," she said, pointing to the effects of the 2008 downturn.
U.S.-based Freeport also has major operations in Chile, Peru, Europe and Indonesia. Quirk said she welcomed the idea of producing more copper in the United States, a goal in line with Trump's aim of boosting domestic production to offset the dominance of China.
The company is already the largest U.S. copper producer and operates one of two U.S. smelters for the red metal.
(Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Ernest Scheyder and Rod Nickel)
