Reddish-brown ape hugging retreating salesman (7)

I believe the answer is:

coppery

'reddish-brown' is the definition.

'ape hugging retreating salesman' is the wordplay.
'ape' becomes 'copy' (synonyms).
'hugging' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'retreating' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'salesman' becomes 'rep' (I've seen this before).
'rep' back-to-front is 'per'.
'copy' placed around 'per' is 'COPPERY'.

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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