Tariffs on Pharmaceuticals May Be the Next Front in Trump's War on Public Health [View all]

Over the last couple of weeks, even as tariffs have wreaked havoc on markets around the world, President Donald Trump and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick have repeatedly teased the notion of slapping hefty tariffs on imported pharmaceuticals. Lutnick has said these are likely to be introduced before the summer.

Trump’s rationale for placing tariffs on medical drugs is, like most of his other major policy initiatives, framed around national security: It makes no sense, he says, to be reliant on other countries for supplies of medicines.

Certainly, in the long run, it would be a good thing for the U.S. to have the capacity to make more of its own medicines, not least so that in a pandemic, when supply chains break down, people can still access medications stateside. However, whatever the merits of that argument, Trump’s plan will make a bad situation worse. One can’t simply will the infrastructure and supply chains for the production of large amounts of medicines into existence overnight. The U.S. has a good base for manufacturing branded medicines — those under patents — but generic drugs are overwhelmingly produced overseas. Last year, according to the United Nations trade database, the U.S. imported a whopping $213 billion worth of pharmaceutical products.

https://truthout.org/articles/tariffs-on-pharmaceuticals-may-be-the-next-front-in-trumps-war-on-public-health/