Donald Trump says ‘major tariff on pharmaceuticals’ coming soon

US President Donald Trump said that the US is going to announce “major tariffs on pharmaceuticals”. He said they have the advantage of being one of the biggest markets. 

Speaking at a dinner hosted by the National Republican Congressional Committee, Trump said, “We are going to be announcing very shortly a major tariff on pharmaceuticals. When you and when they hear that, they will leave China, they will leave other places because they have to sell most of their products here.”

In the gala, Trump said that pharmaceuticals, drugs and other things are going to get better. “They are made in other countries and you pay a number. I mean, the same package in our country, compared to London and other places, is sometimes 10 times more. Something that sells for $88 in London sells for $1,300 here, made in the same factory, by the same company. And that's over. I told them all that's over.”

Trump said other countries place restrictions on prices, which eventually the pharmaceutical companies agree to, and sell their drugs for cheaper in those markets. He said once the tariffs are imposed on pharmaceutical companies, they are “going to come rushing back” into the US. “Because we're the big market, the advantage we have over everybody is that we're the big market,” he said. 

With the pharmaceutical tariffs, drug companies would be forced to open their plants all over the country. “So that's breaking news, ladies and gentlemen, we have breaking news,” he said. 

Meanwhile, Trump has already applied 25 per cent tariffs on sectors such as steel, aluminium and automobiles. He is expected to enact them on copper too.