Trump to Announce Tariffs on Pharmaceuticals

President Donald Trump will soon announce tariffs on pharmaceuticals, he told CNBC in a Tuesday morning interview.

“Within the next week or so, we’re going to be announcing tariffs on pharmaceuticals,” he said.

“We want pharmaceuticals made in our country,” the president said.

Trump said he will also announce tariffs on semi-conductors and chips because “we want them made in the United States.”

“They’re being made in the United States,” he said. “Taiwan is coming over and spending $300 billion in Arizona, building the biggest plant in the world for chips and semiconductors. But on pharmaceuticals, we’ll be putting an initially small tariff on pharmaceuticals, but in one year, one and a half years, maximum, it’s going to go to 150%, and then it’s going to go to 250%.”

Trump signed an executive order in May slashing prescription drug prices. He instituted a “most favored nation’s” policy under which Americans will pay “the same price as the Nation that pays the lowest price anywhere in the World.”

Drugs produced by U.S. pharmaceutical companies are frequently priced far lower overseas. In his statement, Trump rejected what he contended was the argument from drug companies that research and development costs had to be borne by U.S. consumers, saying the manufacturers were making “suckers” of Americans.

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