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President Donald Trump plans to hike tariffs on generic pharmaceuticals to 200% in the coming years, according to a Tuesday Truth Social postadding to a growing list of tariff decisions from the White House in recent weeks.
Trump said the timeline would begin Aug. 1, with generic drugs continuing to face a 0% tariff for the next two years. From there, the levy would increase to 100% for a year before rising to 200%.
“This is done in order to RESHORE Generic Pharmaceutical Production into America, with a penalty to those Companies that decide not to build Plant and Equipment within the stated period of time given to them,” Trump said in the post.
“We are back to possible trade policy via tweet. This time a new threat on generic pharmaceuticals,” Deborah Elms, head of trade policy at the Hinrich Foundation, said in a LinkedIn post. “Start date two years away, so it may well be a threat that never materializes. But because it still might happen, worth paying attention to today.”
The announcement comes just over a week before the U.S. begins imposing a 100% tariff on patented pharmaceutical products from a list of 17 companies, including Eli Lilly and Co., Pfizer and Novo Nordisk. However, reduced levies will apply to covered imports from several countries with which the U.S. has struck trade-related agreements.
Additional companies will begin facing the levy on Sept. 29 with the same trade deal-related carveouts. When announcing those tariffs in April, Trump said they would not cover generic drugs for at least a year, after which the exception would be reassessed. Tuesday’s announcement appears to adjust the timeline.
Trump said the new plan for generic pharmaceuticals would not alter the policy for patented drugs, which resulted from a Section 232 investigation. Trump did not mention whether he would be leveraging the same mechanism to install the new tariffs on generics, which he has previously used to implement duties on goods ranging from cars and auto parts to steel and aluminum.
This is the latest in a barrage of tariff announcements from the Trump administration in the last week, including a 50% levy on many Canada goods and a 25% duty on a slew of imports from Brazil.
More tariffs could be on the horizon, as a temporary 10% tariff Trump put in place in February after previous duties were wiped out by the Supreme Court is set to expire on Friday.
Additionally, the Trump administration is in the midst of several Section 232 and Section 301 probes, findings of which have previously served as the bedrock for duties, such as those announced last week on products from Brazil.
