Trump threatens pharma tariffs this month: 4 notes
President Donald Trump said he will most likely impose tariffs on pharmaceuticals as soon as the end of the month, along with tariffs on semiconductors, Bloomberg reported July 15.
Here are four notes:
- President Trump said the additional tariffs could hit along with broader additional rates set for August 1. “Probably at the end of the month, we’re going to start off with a low tariff and give the pharmaceutical companies a year or so to build, and then we/re going to make it a very high tariff,” he told reporters July 15.
- At a cabinet meeting in early July, President Trump announced plans to impose a 50% tariff on copper and suggested that pharmaceutical tariffs could reach 200% within a year unless companies bring manufacturing back to the U.S. He also invoked investigations under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, citing national security threats due to a flood of imports.
- This comes after President Trump sent letters to trading partners dictating new import duties while maintaining a willingness to negotiate. One negotiation with Indonesia resulted in a revised tariff rate of 19%, down from 32% in exchange for commitments to buy $15 billion in U.S. energy and $4.5 billion in agriculturale products.
- Smaller nations that did not receive custom tariff rates from the Trump administration will face a flat tariff of 10%, while other trading partners, such as the European Union, face a much higher levy of 30%.