Trump: 'Major Tariff' on Pharmaceuticals Coming Soon
“We’re going to tariff our pharmaceuticals, and once we do that, they are going to come rushing back into our country," President Donald J. Trump said during a Tuesday night dinner in Washington.
President Donald J. Trump
© Courtesy of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
President Donald Trump said Tuesday night during remarks at a dinner in Washington, D.C., that tariffs on pharmaceuticals were coming "very shortly."
Trump's global and reciprocal tariffs, announced earlier this month, have shaken the stock market and created uncertainty in every sector of the economy, including pharmaceuticals.
In his Tuesday remarks at a dinner event on Capitol Hill with House Republicans, Trump emphasized how his "major tariff on pharmaceuticals" would cause the industry to come rushing back stateside.
“We’re going to tariff our pharmaceuticals, and once we do that, they are going to come rushing back into our country, because we’re the big market," Trump said. "The advantage we have over everybody is that we’re the big market. So we’re going to be announcing very shortly a major tariff on pharmaceuticals, and when they hear that, they will leave China, they will leave other places, because most of their product is sold here and they’re going to be opening up their plants all over our country.”
Time will tell how the U.S. pharmaceutical industry responds. Last week, Eli Lilly Chief Executive David Ricks told the BBC that the president's tariffs mark a “pivot” that is likely irreversible.
“It feels like it'll be hard to come back from here,” Ricks said.
The European pharma industry is raising alarms. On Tuesday, in a letter to European Union President Ursula von der Leyen, the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations warned of an exodus of pharma research, development and manufacturing to the United States if Europe doesn't deliver "rapid, radical policy change."
"Where innovation happens matters, it matters to patients, to healthcare systems, to the European economy and security," the statement read. "Europe needs to make a serious commitment to invest in a world class pharmaceutical ecosystem, or at best, risk being reduced to a consumer of other region’s innovation."
