Trump excludes generics from big pharma tariff plan

U.S. administration has been weighing duties for months on a range of products, ingredients

- Gavin Bade

The Trump administration said it isn’t planning to impose tariffs on generic drugs from foreign countries, after months of wrangling over whether to impose levies on the vast majority of drugs that are dispensed in the US.

The administration has been weighing duties on a range of pharmaceutical products and ingredients, using a tariff investigation under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which covers threats to national security. President Trump last month posted online that he would impose 100% tariffs on name-brand drugs on Oct. 1, but didn’t mention generics. Trump ultimately delayed imposing tariffs, as officials said they would allow for more negotiations with drug companies.

“The administration is not actively discussing imposing Section 232 tariffs against generic pharmaceuticals,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement. A spokesman for the Commerce Department, which is handling the tariff investigation, similarly said that the 232 investigation wouldn’t result in tariffs on generics.

The move, which isn’t final and could change in the coming weeks, comes after months of debate within the administration over how to bring manufacturing of generic drugs back to the U.S. and what role tariffs should play in that effort. While Trump has targeted name-brand drugs in tariff threats, he has made few recent statements on generics—the antibiotics, heart medications and other commonplace drugs that make up about 90% of medicines dispensed to Americans every day but are largely sourced from outside the country.