Trump announces ‘national security’ tariffs on drugs, trucks, furniture | International Trade News

The introduced 100% tariff on prescribed drugs, 25% on vans, and 30% on furnishings, as a consequence of come into impact on October 1, reopen the US president’s commerce battle.

United States President Donald Trump has introduced steep new tariffs on pharmaceutical merchandise, big-rig vans, and residential renovation fixtures and furnishings.

The announcement late on Thursday signalled the harshest commerce plans from Trump since final April’s shock unveiling of reciprocal tariffs on nearly each US buying and selling associate throughout the globe, marking a revival of the Republican president’s commerce battle.

Beginning on October 1, “we will likely be imposing a 100% Tariff on any branded or patented Pharmaceutical Product, until a Firm IS BUILDING their Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plant in America,” Trump wrote on his Reality Social platform.

Shares of pharmaceutical corporations throughout Asia with huge publicity to the US market fell on Friday, together with South Korea’s Samsung Biologics.

Trump’s transfer was criticised by Australia, which exported pharmaceutical merchandise value an estimated $1.3bn to the US in 2024, in response to the United Nations Comtrade Database.

In a separate publish, Trump wrote of a 25 p.c tariff on “all ‘Heavy (Large) Vans’ made in different elements of the world” to help US producers reminiscent of “Peterbilt, Kenworth, Freightliner, Mack Vans and others”.

Overseas corporations that compete with these producers within the US market embody Sweden’s Volvo and Germany’s Daimler. Shares in each corporations have been sharply decrease in after-hours buying and selling in Europe.

Trump mentioned the truck tariffs have been “for a lot of causes, however above all else, for Nationwide Safety functions!”

Earlier this 12 months, the Trump administration launched a so-called Part 232 probe into imports of vans to “decide the consequences of nationwide safety”, setting the stage for Thursday’s announcement.

Part 232 is a commerce legislation provision that offers the president broad authority to impose tariffs or different restrictions on imports when they’re deemed a risk to nationwide safety.

Trump additionally mentioned a 50 p.c tariff on house renovation supplies and a 30 p.c tariff on upholstered furnishings can be imposed, as he claimed that such merchandise have been swamping the US market from overseas.

In accordance with the US Worldwide Commerce Fee, in 2022, imports, primarily from Asia, represented 60 p.c of all furnishings offered, together with 86 p.c of all wooden furnishings and 42 p.c of all upholstered furnishings.

Shares in house furnishings retailers Wayfair and Williams Sonoma, which rely on these imported items, tumbled in after-hours buying and selling.

Trump’s administration has already imposed a baseline 10 percent tariff on all nations, with greater individualised charges on nations the place exports to the US far exceed imports.

Trump has additionally used emergency powers to impose additional tariffs on trade deal partners Canada and Mexico, in addition to on China, citing issues over fentanyl trafficking and undocumented migration.

It was not but clear how these new tariffs would issue into the prevailing measures.