US pharmaceutical tariffs may not have an “immediate impact” on Singapore’s drugmakers, Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong has said, adding that the government is in talks with Washington to get more information on the latest levies.
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Gan, who is also minister for trade and industry, told reporters on Saturday that most pharmaceutical companies in Singapore had built capacity in the US or had plans to do so. That could allow them to be exempted from the coming US pharmaceutical tariffs, he said, adding the firms were also seeking clarity on whether they would qualify for an exclusion.
The full impact of the threatened tariffs is unclear, given the lack of details available from the White House and indications from Trump’s social media posts that companies planning US manufacturing may be exempt.
Trump said the levies would take effect on Wednesday unless companies were building manufacturing plants in the US. It was among a flurry of new tariffs he recently announced, including a 25 per cent duty on imported heavy trucks, a 50 per cent charge on kitchen cabinets, and 30 per cent on upholstered furniture.
Drug makers including Pfizer Inc., Amgen Inc. and Merck & Co. have facilities in Singapore, where pharmaceuticals account for about 13 per cent of exports to the US, according to Gan, adding the industry accounts for more than S$4 billion (US$3.1 billion) worth of exports to the US. Plants operated by Novartis AG and AbbVie Inc. also manufacture blockbuster biologics such as Cosentyx and Skyrizi for global markets.
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