Updates with afternoon trading levels

By Ragini Mathur, Purvi Agarwal and Shashwat Chauhan

July 9 (Reuters) - Latin American currencies were mixed, while stocks declined on Wednesday as investors assessed steep copper tariffs out of the United States and awaited President Donald Trump's latest announcements in his ongoing trade war.

Trump said on Tuesday that he would impose a 50% tariff on imported copper and soon introduce long-threatened levies on semiconductors and pharmaceuticals.

Chile's peso CLP=, the currency of the world's largest copper producer, fell 0.7%. Chile is the biggest supplier of copper to the United States, though such exports represent less than 7% of its total refined copper shipments.

"The copper tariff will be negative for trade flows and the Chilean peso in the longer run because they will hamper domestic activity, exports, capital inflows to Chile," said Andres Abadia, chief Latam economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

"But the front running ahead of the implementation could be a net positive for the Chilean economy and for the currency."

Chilean President Gabriel Boric said he had yet to hear from the U.S. and called for "official" communication, while Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said that Mexico could redirect the copper it typically exports to the U.S. to bypass tariffs.

In Mexico, the peso MXN= fell 0.2% against the dollar, retreating from its highest level since August reached earlier in the day.

Mexico's annual inflation rate eased in June after rising for four consecutive months, although core prices kept climbing.

"High core inflation with sticky services points to the need to be cautious in the near-term calibration of monetary policy and would support reducing the pace of cuts to 25bp at the August meeting," said Alberto Ramos, head of Latin America Economics Research at Goldman Sachs.

Brazil, one of the top copper exporters, also saw its currency, the real BRL=, decline by 0.9%.

A Reuters poll showed that Brazil's monthly inflation is expected to have slowed for the fourth time in a row in June.

Countries and trade blocs are racing to negotiate agreements with the Trump administration to avoid substantial tariffs, following the president's revised deadline of August 1.

Trump said in posts on his Truth Social media platform that, starting August 1, he would impose a 20% tariff on goods from the Philippines, 30% on goods from Sri Lanka, Algeria, Iraq, and Libya, and 25% on Brunei and Moldova.

Late on Tuesday, he had said that he planned to issue "a minimum of seven" tariff notices on Wednesday morning, with additional announcements in the afternoon.

Latin American stocks .MILA00000PUS were broadly lower, dropping 1.2%.

Heavyweight Brazilian stocks .BVSP fell 1.4%, while Mexican blue chips .MXX lost 0.9%, with both markets poised for their third consecutive daily decline.

Argentina's markets were closed for the Independence Day holiday.

Also on Wednesday, minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve's policy meeting showed that only a couple of officials believed interest rates could be lowered as early as this month, while the majority of policymakers remained concerned about inflationary pressures.

Key Latin American stock indexes and currencies:

(Reporting by Purvi Agarwal, Ragini Mathur and Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Mohammed Safi Shamsi)

((Ragini.Mathur@thomsonreuters.com; Shashwat.Chauhan@thomsonreuters.com))