US President Donald Trump has announced a 100% tariff on branded or patented pharmaceutical products starting October 1, unless a company is in the process of building its manufacturing plant in America.
“Starting October 1st, 2025, we will be imposing a 100% Tariff on any branded or patented Pharmaceutical Product, unless a Company IS BUILDING their Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plant in America,” the US president wrote on social media platform, Truth Social.
“‘IS BUILDING’ will be defined as, ‘breaking ground’ and/or ‘under construction.’ There will, therefore, be no Tariff on these Pharmaceutical Products if construction has started. Thank you for your attention to this matter!,” the announcement reads.
This follows an announcement in August that pharmaceutical exports from the EU to the US would be hit with a 15 percent tariff as part of the trade deal struck between the parties.
Ireland is a major pharmaceuticals exporter to the US. Of total goods exported to the US in the first quarter of 2025, 94 percent (or €23.9 billion) were ‘chemicals and related products’ which include medical and pharmaceutical products, according to the CSO.
The CSO’s analysis found that for Q1 this year, overall exports of medical and pharmaceutical products increased by 154 percent (€33.9 billion) to €55.9 billion compared with the same period last year (€22.0 billion).
The announcement came shortly after Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Simon Harris met with US Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick in Washington.
It is not clear whether Mr Lutnick raised the impending pharmaceuticals tariff with Mr Harris during their meeting.
In a statement responding to President Trump’s tariff announcement, the tánaiste said that his department will be assessing the impact of the decision along with EU colleagues.
“I want to stress, however, that the EU and the US Joint Statement issued on 21 August last made absolutely clear that any new tariffs announced by the US on pharmaceuticals under its Section 232 investigation would be capped at 15% for pharma products being exported by the EU.
“This remains the case and underlines again the value of the agreement reached last month,” he said.
Mr Lutnick has previously criticised Ireland’s economic model, describing the country as his favourite “tax scam,” additionally expressing disapproval about the way in which Ireland has traditionally achieved a trade surplus with the US, describing the situation as “nonsense”.
In a similar manner, President Trump has on a number of occasions mentioned Ireland by name when expressing dissatisfaction with American companies manufacturing pharmaceuticals overseas.
Speaking in March this year, Mr Trump said “We’re going to be doing tariffs on pharmaceuticals in order to bring our pharmaceutical industry back.
“We don’t make anything here in terms of drugs, medical drugs, different types of drugs that you need, medicines.”
“It’s in other countries, largely made in China, a lot of it made in Ireland. Ireland was very smart, we love Ireland,” he said on that occasion, adding, “but we’re gonna have that”.