WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump on Thursday unveiled a fresh round of punishing tariffs on a broad range of imported goods, including 100% duties on branded drugs and 25% levies on heavy-duty trucks, set to come into force next week.
The latest salvo, which Trump said was to protect the US manufacturing industry and national security, follows sweeping duties on trading partners of up to 50% and other targeted levies on imported products such as steel.
The barrage has cast a pall over global growth and paralyzed business decision-making around the world, while the Federal Reserve has said it is also contributing to higher consumer prices in America.
Trump’s latest announcements on Truth Social did not mention whether the new levies would stack on top of existing national tariffs. But recently struck trade deals with Japan, the EU, and the United Kingdom include provisions that cap tariffs for specific products like pharmaceuticals.
Tokyo said it was still analyzing the potential impact of the new measures, which Canberra called “unfair” and “unjustified”.
Trump also followed through on a pledge to “bring back” America’s furniture business, saying he would start charging a 50% tariff on imported kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities and a 30% tariff on upholstered furniture. All the new duties take effect from October 1.
“The reason for this is the large scale ‘FLOODING’ of these products into the United States by other outside Countries,” Trump said.
Stocks of pharmaceutical companies across Asia fell as investors reacted to the news, with Australia’s CSL hitting a six-year low, Japan’s Sumitomo PharmaT tumbling more than 3% and pharmaceutical indices in Hong Kong and India down more than 1%.
An index tracking Chinese-listed furniture makers also dropped around 1%.
The new actions are seen as part of the Trump administration’s shift to better-established legal authorities for its tariff actions, given the risks associated with a case before the Supreme Court on the legality of his sweeping global tariffs.
The new 100% tariff on any branded or patented pharmaceutical product will apply to all imports unless the company has already broken ground on building a manufacturing plant in the United States, Trump said.
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, an industry group, said companies “continue to announce hundreds of billions in new US investments. Tariffs risk those plans.”
The Trump administration has opened a dozen probes into the national security ramifications of imports of wind turbines, airplanes, semiconductors, polysilicon, copper, timber and lumber and critical minerals to form the basis of new tariffs.
Trump this week announced new probes into personal protective equipment, medical items, robotics and industrial machinery. He previously imposed national security tariffs on steel and aluminum and derivatives, light-duty autos and parts, and copper.
FOREIGN POLICY TOOL
Trump has made the levies a key foreign policy tool, using them to renegotiate trade deals, extract concessions and exert political pressure on other countries.
His administration has played down the impact on consumer prices and touted tariffs as a significant revenue source, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent saying Washington could collect $300 billion by the end of the year.
Some economies that have already struck deals may get a reprieve on the latest duties.
The EU’s deal with the US stipulates it will pay a 15% tariff on goods including pharmaceuticals, while Japan has an agreement that its tariff rates will not exceed others including the EU, Tokyo’s trade negotiator Ryosei Akazawa said on Friday.
Akazawa declined to comment directly on the new measures, adding Tokyo was still assessing how they related to their existing deal.
In Australia, Health Minister Mark Butler told reporters the government was working to understand the implications of the new “unfair, unjustified tariffs after 20 years of free trade.”
More than half of the $85.6 billion in ingredients used in medicines consumed in the United States are manufactured in the US, with the remainder from Europe and other US allies, the US pharmaceutical trade group said earlier this year.
When it comes to furniture, imports to the United States hit $25.5 billion in 2024, up 7% from the year prior. About 60% of those imports came from Vietnam and China, according to Furniture Today, a trade publication.
“Many of our members were shocked when we heard the news. I think the decision on the additional tariff is unfair,” said Nguyen Thi Thu Hoai from the Wood and Handicraft Association of Dong Nai province, one of Vietnam’s largest furniture clusters.
Trump in August had promised to impose new furniture tariffs, saying it “will bring the Furniture Business back” to North Carolina, South Carolina and Michigan.
Furniture and wood products manufacturing employment in the US has halved since 2000 to around 340,000 today, according to government statistics.
INFLATION PRESSURE
Higher tariffs on commercial vehicles could put pressure on transportation costs just as Trump has vowed to reduce inflation, especially on consumer goods such as groceries.
Trump said the new heavy-duty truck tariffs were to protect manufacturers from “unfair outside competition” and said the move would benefit companies such as Paccar-owned Peterbilt and Kenworth and Daimler Truck-owned Freightliner.
The US Chamber of Commerce earlier urged the department not to impose new truck tariffs, noting the top five import sources are Mexico, Canada, Japan, Germany, and Finland “all of which are allies or close partners of the United States posing no threat to US national security.”
Mexico, the largest truck exporter, has opposed new tariffs, telling the Commerce Department in May that all Mexican trucks exported to the United States have on average 50% US content, including diesel engines. Chrysler-parent Stellantis is among many companies that produces trucks in Mexico.
Last year, the United States imported almost $128 billion in heavy vehicle parts from Mexico, accounting for approximately 28% of total US imports in the category, Mexico said. — Reuters
