US President Donald Trump’s latest tariffs targeting pharmaceuticals do not apply to countries that already have negotiated trade deals, a White House official said on Friday, in a move that will likely be greeted with relief in Ireland and the European Union,
Asked whether pharmaceutical tariffs apply to trading partners such as the European Union and Japan that already have trade deals, the official said the Trump administration would honor the 15 per cent cap as part of those pacts, Reuters reported.
That would appear to lift any immediate threat that the EU and Ireland could be hit with the 100 per cent tariff Mr Trump had threatened in a social media post on Friday.
The Government had earlier said a deal capping future US tariffs on imports of pharmaceuticals from Europe still stands, despite Mr Trump’s threats of much higher trade levies.
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Mr Trump announced plans to hit pharmaceuticals with a 100 per cent import tax from October 1st, unless drugmakers were building new manufacturing plants in America.
Officials in Brussels and Dublin had spend Friday assessing where the threat leaves a EU-US tariff deal agreed earlier this year, which limited any coming US tariffs on pharma imports to a 15 per cent cap.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Mr Trump dropped his latest tariff bombshell, stating the White House would be introducing huge import levies on pharmaceutical products.
“Starting October 1st, 2025, we will be imposing a 100 per cent tariff on any branded or patented pharmaceutical product, unless a company IS BUILDING their pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in America,” Mr Trump wrote. “There will, therefore, be no tariff on these pharmaceutical products if construction has started.”
The US president did not state whether this 100 per cent tariff rate would apply to European trade.
In a statement, Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Harris stressed the transatlantic deal on tariffs remained in place.
“We will be studying the impact of this announcement, which includes a number of exemptions, together with EU colleagues,” he said.
The deal agreed by Mr Trump and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen was “absolutely clear” that any US tariffs on pharma imports would be limited to 15 per cent, Mr Harris said.
“This remains the case and underlines again the value of the agreement,” he said.
Mr Trump’s latest salvo drew a modest reaction from investors in morning market trading on Friday. Shares in Denmark’s Novo Nordisk were down 1.5 per cent on the day, but other big pharma groups, such as the UK’s AstraZeneca and Switzerland’s Roche, were broadly flat after initial falls.
The tariff deal saw the EU agree to suck up across-the-board tariffs on future trade with the US. This was done to avoid a full-blown trade war between the two long-standing economic partners.
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Officials in the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm that steers trade policy, are confident Mr Trump’s announcement does not mean the EU’s tariff deal has been binned.
A commission spokesman said commitments from the Trump administration to limit any pharma tariffs to a 15 per cent ceiling were clear.
The EU and US would “continue engaging” on the implementation of that deal, “while exploring further areas for tariff exemptions as well as wider co-operation”, the spokesman said.
Ireland is the most exposed state in the EU to tariffs on the pharma sector.
US pharma giants Pfizer, Eli Lilly, MSD and others have large manufacturing plants in the Republic, producing drugs to ship back across the Atlantic. The industry accounts for a huge portion of the State’s exports and trade with the US and contributes a sizeable amount to the corporation tax take.
Mr Trump views tariffs as a way to pressure US multinational companies to relocate manufacturing capacity and jobs to America, often singling out Ireland as a country that “stole” pharmaceutical firms from the US.
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A situation where tariffs were introduced on medicines and pharma products would be “the worst of all worlds”, a body representing the European pharmaceutical industry said.
Nathalie Moll, head of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, said “urgent discussions” were needed to avoid tariffs on the sector. “Tariffs increase costs, disrupt supply chains and prevent patients from getting life-saving treatments,” she said.
Mr Trump also announced new tariffs on a number of other industries and products.
Imported heavy trucks will be subject to a 25 per cent duty, kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities will be hit with a 50 per cent charge, and upholstered furniture imports are to be taxed at 30 per cent, he said.
