SANTIAGO, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- The price of copper fell this week to 2.80 U.S. dollars a pound amid U.S. protectionist tariff moves, the Chilean Copper Commission (Cochilco) said on Friday.

Such moves "undercut expectations of a quick recovery in the price of the metal," Cochilco said.

As Chile's main export product, copper was selling for 2.84 U.S. dollars a pound on the international market last week.

Workers at Chile's Escondida copper mine went on strike on Thursday to demand a better contract.

"The agents of the copper market are looking more at the risks associated with demand rather than with supply," the commission said.

According to Cochilco, metal exchange inventories "are rapidly shrinking" while the strikes threaten to create "a copper shortage."

Metal exchange inventories currently stand at 628,622 metric tons of copper, or 1.8 percent less than last week. The dip affected all three existing metal exchanges, with the biggest decrease registered in Asian warehouses.