Trump’s global tariffs have been locked in: Who is winning and who is losing?
President Donald Trump’s new round of global tariffs is causing major economic changes. This is who gets it and who gets the biggest hit.
President Donald Trump threatened to collect tariffs of up to 250% on drugs imported into the United States.
The president told CNBC on August 5 that he plans to announce new tariffs “within next week” on imports of drug and semiconductor imports.
He said he plans to launch lower tariffs on drug imports before raising duties that exceed 12-18 months to the maximum.
Trump will start with “low tariffs on drugs at first,” he said. “But it’s up to a year and a half and it’s 150% and then 250%, because we’re making medicines in our country.”
He cited drugs imported from China and Ireland, saying other countries would “create property” in medicines.
Trump has said several times in recent months that there could be trade measures in the pharmaceutical industry that have been globalising in drug supply chains ranging from Europe to China and India since the 1990s.
In July, Trump said his administration was planning up to 200% drug-specific tariffs, but said the pharmaceutical company has time to establish US-based drug manufacturing.
In April, Trump said he planned to impose tariffs on drugs made overseas.
On July 31, Trump wrote to 17 pharmaceutical companies, urging them to lower US drug prices by September 29, becoming the “most preferred country” amount paid by other countries.
In the letter, Trump urged pharmaceutical companies to adopt drug pricing for Medicaid, a federal national health insurance program for low-income people.
He also requested that pharmaceutical companies lower US prices to the same level of billed in Europe and elsewhere for newly launched drugs for people with Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance plans.
Trump has also urged pharmaceutical companies to lower pharmaceutical prices for US consumers and businesses who purchase directly from pharmaceutical companies.
“Don’t make mistakes. Collaborative efforts to achieve global pricing parity are the most effective path for businesses, governments and American patients,” Trump said in the letter. “But if you refuse to step up, we will deploy all our tools to our arsenals to protect American families from continuing abusive drug pricing practices.”
