A 100% tariff on drug imports. Trump signed the executive order Thursday — every pharmaceutical product from countries without a U.S. trade deal now faces a doubled landed cost at the border.
That’s most of the world’s drug supply chain. India, the primary source of U.S. generic drugs, doesn’t have a bilateral pharma deal with the U.S. Neither does the EU. Active ingredients from China? Same problem. Importers either eat the cost or push it to patients and insurers. Nobody’s eating it.
The order kicks in “within several months.” Trade attorneys aren’t waiting. They’re already drafting challenges under IEEPA — the International Emergency Economic Powers Act — which is the likeliest vehicle for a preliminary injunction. Courts have blocked tariff orders before under that authority.
Here’s what makes this one different from the Section 232 tariff signed earlier this month: that order had carve-outs for MFN pricing deals and reshoring commitments. This one doesn’t. No escape hatch mentioned. No graduated timeline.
Pharma’s global manufacturing networks took decades to build. You can’t reshore API production from Hyderabad to New Jersey in “several months.” Everyone knows it. The question is whether the courts move faster than the effective date.
— James Okafor