LONDON – The White House plans to clarify what its official called misinformation about import tariffs for gold bars amid uncertainty, which saw some industry players pausing deliveries of bullion to the United States.

According to a ruling on the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) service's website on Friday, Washington may place the most widely traded gold bullion bars in the United States under country-specific import tariffs, a move that would roil the metal's global supply chains.

The White House intends to issue an executive order in the near future "clarifying misinformation" about tariffs on gold bars and other specialty products, the White House official told Reuters on Friday.

US gold futures pared gains after the White House comment. They were last up 0.1% at $3 457 per ounce, reducing a premium over spot gold, the global benchmark, which was steady at $3 398. 

The CBP ruling refers to cast gold bars from Switzerland, the world's biggest bullion refining and transit hub, which is now subject to US import tariffs of 39%.

The CBP said that the correct HS customs code to use when supplying 1 kg bullion bars and 100 troy ounce bullion bars, the most traded sizes in the US futures market, to the US would be 7108.13.5500 and not 7108.12.10.

However, Washington included only the latter code in the list of products excluded from country-specific import tariffs in April, with 7108.13.5500 not on the list.

The Swiss Association of Precious Metals Manufacturers and Traders (ASFCMP) said in a statement that the clarification applied to any country delivering these bars to the US.

"The United States is a longstanding market for us, so this is a blow for the industry and for Switzerland," Christoph Wild, president of the ASFCMP, told Reuters.

"With a tariff of 39%, exports of gold bars will be definitely stopped to the US" Wild said.

While Switzerland is the refining and transit hub, Britain is home to the world's largest over-the-counter gold trading hub, and South Africa and Canada are among major gold miners.

"Likely imposing 39% tariffs on Swiss kilobars is akin to pouring sand into an otherwise well-functioning engine. I say "likely"...the possibility remains that this is an error," said independent analyst Ross Norman.

A major gold refinery in Switzerland stopped deliveries to the US after seeing the CBP ruling, a top manager at the refinery told Reuters, while a gold logistics specialist said some other industry players outside Switzerland did the same.

The White House's upcoming executive order "should hopefully clear things up," said the logistics source.

Protecting the US gold futures during this uncertainty are high stocks of gold in Comex-owned warehouses GC-STX-COMEX, after massive inflows over December-March as traders hedged against the possibility of broad US tariffs hitting bullion imports.

"The COMEX inventories currently amount to 86% of open interest - against a more normal 40% to 45% - so there is no liquidity issue at present," said StoneX analyst Rhona O'Connell.