Pharma firms are calling for clarity on tariffs imposed under the new U.S.-EU trade agreement, as analysts warn that punitive sector-specific levies could risk blowing up the entire deal.
Ambiguity abounds around the terms for pharmaceutical goods under the trade truce agreed Sunday, which imposes 15% tariffs on EU goods imported to the U.S.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced a “straight across” tariff on “automobiles and everything else,” during a news briefing, while simultaneously suggesting that pharma was “unrelated to this deal.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, meanwhile, dubbed the agreed levy as “all-inclusive,” and indicated that Europe would be excluded from a forthcoming announcement on pharma tariffs.
“We have 15% for pharmaceuticals. Whatever the decision later on is, of the president of the U.S., how to deal with pharmaceuticals in general globally, that’s on a different sheet of paper,” Von der Leyen said Sunday.
