Trump Says 'Major' Pharmaceuticals Tariff Coming 'Very Shortly'
A “major” tariff on pharmaceuticals will be announced “very shortly,” President Donald Trump said April 8.
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He discussed the pharmaceutical tariff again April 9 during an Oval Office press event.
Trump, speaking at an annual dinner hosted by the National Republican Congressional Committee on Tuesday, told attendees a tariff on “pharmaceuticals, drugs, other things to get better” will bring drug manufacturing to the U.S. from places like China.
He also seemed to mention price controls. He said that the “same package” of pharmaceuticals costs significantly more in the U.S. than in other countries, such as the U.K.. Other countries “are smart” because they set price controls on pharmaceutical products sold in their country, he said.
“But we’re going to do something that we have to do,” he said. “We’re going to tariff our pharmaceuticals, and once we do that, they’re going to come rushing back into our country because we’re the big market.”
On April 9, he again said his administration “will be” considering or implementing pharmaceutical tariffs. He said that his administration wants to bring drug manufacturers back to the U.S. after realizing during the COVID pandemic that “we had to go to China to get drugs, we had to go to other places, I won’t even mention the names.”
He disparaged the use of economic incentives to bring manufacturers back.
“I’m not going to pay them any money like Biden with the ‘chip deal’,” he said, referring to the 2022 CHIPS Act. “That ‘chip’ deal was horrible. They give billions and billions of dollars to ‘chip’ companies, all they have is money, they have so much money.”
Instead, he said, “the only thing that will bring them back” is a tariff of “50% or 100% or 200%.”
Major U.S. drug manufacturers’ stocks fell by between 3% and 6% after the announcement, Reuters reported April 9.
Prior to Trump’s remarks, Democrats in the House of Representatives sent Trump a letter warning that the reciprocal tariffs could cause supply chain disruptions, driving up the cost of medication, according to The Hill. The tariffs could “potentially even result in death as treatments are delayed, or more effective medicines and products are swapped for less effective alternatives,” the representatives wrote.