Tariff Watch: New York Becomes the World's Gold Vault

New York Booms With Gold: Over 600 Tons Imported This Year

Gold is making headlines as experts describe extraordinary circumstances affecting the precious metal. The market has been upended by the announcement and enactment of U.S. tariffs from the Trump administration, prompting an exodus of gold from the old continent.

The World Gold Council (WGC), an authority in gold circles, has certified that over 600 tons of gold have flown into the vaults of New York since December. This circumstance has been qualified as extraordinary by John Reade, WGC’s market strategist for Asia and Europe, who remarked that this gold doesn’t belong there.

He explained:

Supply chains have been disrupted because of this huge sucking sound, which has been the United States importing gold ahead of the potential tariffs.

As Reade stated, the boom of gold imports has been spurred by a latent fear of a total trade war scenario, where all imports to the U.S., including gold and silver, would have to pay tariffs.

This influences the demand for deliveries, that are otherwise scarce. “If you’re now suddenly worried that you might have to pay an import tariff, then you don’t want your gold in London, you need to have it in New York before the tariff comes in,” he stressed.

The rising demand has disrupted other gold flows, as refineries that can produce one-kilogram gold bars have limited capacity, and are located in China, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and India.

This is because the gold bars that cannot be taken to the U.S. as they are are being melted and refined by other refineries, transforming them into one-kilogram gold bars. However, this affects the already planned operations of these facilities. Reade concluded that the U.S. “sucks gold out of the rest of the system.”

Read more: US Gold Influx: Swiss Exports Surge to Unprecedented Levels