US President Donald Trump warned on Tuesday that upcoming tariffs on imported drugs might reach 250 per cent, after starting at a lower level, and that he expects to impose new duties on foreign chips.
“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 percent,” Trump said in an interview on CNBC.
“And then it’s going to go to 250 per cent because we want pharmaceuticals made in our country,” he added.
In the same vein, Trump said he expects to raise the US tariff on Indian imports “very substantially over the next 24 hours” due to the country’s purchases of Russian oil.
While the US President has aimed at products from different countries with varying tariff rates after imposing a 10 per cent levy on almost all trading partners in April, these have excluded certain products he planned to target separately.
These sector-specific levies have often resulted from government studies into national security concerns about certain imports.
The Trump administration has signalled ambitions to conclude investigations into imported semiconductors and pharmaceuticals, which might result in new taxes.
Trump has already imposed 50 per cent tariffs on imported steel and aluminium, as well as a separate but lesser charge on automobiles and parts.
