Trump Imposes 100% Tariff on Imported Brand-Name Drugs

Washington has invoked national-security tariffs before—from the 25 % steel duties of 2018 to Nixon’s 10 % import surcharge in 1971—but a direct 100 % levy on medicines recalls the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Act’s across-the-board hikes that deepened supply shocks. Trump's order continues a post-2008 trend of weaponising supply chains (semiconductors in the 1980s, rare-earths in 2010, PPE in 2020) and fits a broader decoupling push accelerated by his 2025 “Liberation Day” tariffs—many of which the Supreme Court annulled in February, pushing the White House to fallback authorities like Section 232. Over a century horizon it signals an erosion of the post-1945 liberal trade order: if life-saving drugs can be tariffed at 100 %, virtually any good can be recast as “strategic,” encouraging other capitals to duplicate the tactic, fragment standards, and raise the cost of global public-health innovation. Whether the move births a domestic pharma boom or merely higher prices could shape how future governments balance national security with open markets.