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The U.S. Trade Representative has launched a Section 301 trade investigation targeting Germany to determine whether the country uses unfair pricing policies and practices to underpay for pharmaceuticals at the expense of U.S. consumers, according to a Federal Register notice.
The trade office investigation, launched on June 18, will review if Germany's actions result in the U.S. paying a disproportionate share of global research and development costs for innovative pharmaceuticals.
"U.S. consumers pay approximately 3.9 times as much as the prices consumers in Germany pay for brand-name drugs," the notice says. As a result, "higher U.S. prices support and fund global R&D costs for innovative pharmaceutical manufacturers and, thereby, unfairly shift Germany’s fair share of costs for pharmaceutical innovation onto U.S. patients and consumers."
The Trump administration has previously used Section 301 investigations as a precursor to tariffs, including planned levies on imports from Nicaragua and China semiconductors expected to come next year.
