Trump plans a hefty tax on imported drugs, risking higher prices and shortages

US President Donald Trump has promised to impose hefty import taxes on pharmaceuticals, a category of products he has largely spared in his trade war.

For decades, in fact, imported medicine has mostly been allowed to enter the United States duty free.

That is starting to change. US and European leaders recently detailed a trade deal that includes a 15 per cent tariff rate on some European goods brought into the United States, including pharmaceuticals. Trump is threatening duties of 200 per cent more on drugs made elsewhere.

Trump has promised Americans he will lower their drug costs. But imposing stiff pharmaceutical tariffs risks the opposite and could disrupt complex supply chains, drive cheap, foreign-made generic drugs out of the US market and create shortages.

“A tariff would hurt consumers most of all, as they would feel the inflationary effect … directly when paying for prescriptions at the pharmacy and indirectly through higher insurance premiums,’’ Diederik Stadig, a healthcare economist with the financial services firm ING, wrote in a commentary last month, adding that lower-income households and the elderly would feel the greatest impact.

The threat comes as Trump also pressures drug makers to lower prices in the United States. He recently sent letters to several companies telling them to develop a plan to start offering so-called most-favoured nation pricing.