Trump to impose new tariffs on pharmaceuticals ‘next week or so’ — ‘It is going to go to 250%’

US President Donald Trump has announced that new US tariffs on semiconductor and pharmaceutical imports will be imposed “within the next week or so.”

The move is part of the administration’s broader strategy to use trade levies to bring manufacturing back to the US and target key economic sectors, PTI reported.

Pharma to face high tariffs

In a recent interview on CNBC, Trump outlined his tariff plan. “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% because we want pharmaceuticals made in our country,” he said.

The news report said this follows Trump’s recent demand that major suppliers of medicines drastically cut costs or face additional, unspecified penalties.

The world’s largest drugmakers, including Merck & Co. and Eli Lilly & Co., operate scores of manufacturing sites across the globe. Nearly 90% of US biotech companies rely on imported components for at least half of their approved products, according to the Biotechnology Innovation Organization.

Semiconductors also targeted

In addition to imposing tariffs on pharmaceuticals, the president also revealed his plan to target the chip industry by stating, “We’re going to be announcing on semiconductors and chips, which is a separate category.”

The Commerce Department has been investigating the semiconductor market since April to set the stage for possible tariffs on an industry that’s expected to generate nearly $700 billion in global sales.

These levies could lead to a sharp increase in costs for major data centre operators including Microsoft Corp, OpenAI, Meta Platforms Inc and Amazon that plan on investing billions of dollars in advanced semiconductors to propel their artificial intelligence businesses.

Trump's previous demands

Unlike some of the administration’s previous country-specific tariffs, which have faced court challenges, these new sectoral tariffs have a stronger legal footing.

These sectoral tariffs on pharmaceuticals, metals and other industries stem from trade investigations that can last about nine months and are based on national security groups under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act. Those so-called reciprocal tariffs are slated to go into effect on Thursday, PTI reported.

The Trump administration has already used this authority to impose levies on imports of cars and auto parts as well as steel and aluminum.