U.S. President Donald Trump has indicated that he is considering implementing tariffs on pharmaceutical imports in the “not too distant future,” once again specifically mentioning Ireland as a key pharmaceutical exporter to the United States.
Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump suggested that new tariffs on the pharmaceutical industry would be similar to those recently imposed on automobiles and metals. “We don’t make our own drugs anymore. The drug companies are in Ireland and they’re in lots of other places – China,” Trump told reporters yesterday.
The president stated his aim is to boost domestic drug production in the United States. “All I have to do is impose a tariff…. We’re going to be doing that,” Trump said, adding that it will happen in the “not too distant future.”
Trump has repeatedly referenced U.S. pharmaceutical companies based in Ireland, raising concerns for the Irish economy as pharmaceutical exports to the U.S. account for approximately €44 billion.
Responding to the tariff threat, Taoiseach Micheál Martin expressed hope that both the pharmaceutical and semiconductor manufacturing sectors will be part of negotiations between the European Union and the United States. The EU had planned to impose retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods worth €21 billion starting today, but these have been postponed until July 14 to allow time for negotiations.
“Everything will be on the table,” Martin said, advocating for a measured approach. “I mean, things are getting announced, things change on a weekly basis. The sensible thing to do is get this onto a negotiating pathway and to see what emerges from those negotiations.”
Tánaiste Simon Harris called it “inappropriate” for the U.S. to target the pharma sector with tariffs while simultaneously negotiating with the EU. Speaking this morning, Harris emphasized that the pharmaceutical industry is “much more interconnected than the Trump administration announcements sometimes suggest.”
Harris noted that global companies establish international presences for strategic reasons: “The companies that are based here in Ireland aren’t based here for the weather. They’re based here for access to a market of 460 million people across the EU and they do very well financially out of that, and that can only be good for the American economy as well.”
Yesterday, EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic met with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in Washington DC—the first face-to-face meeting since the White House imposed tariffs. Sefcovic stated that “the EU remains constructive and ready for a fair deal,” suggesting a potential “zero-for-zero” tariff offer on industrial goods.