OPINION:
President Trump just lowered tariffs on American allies while raising them on China. His goal is obvious: to unite the free world into a coalition strong enough to combat the Chinese Communist Party’s increasing belligerence.
U.S. economic and national security depend on this coalition remaining united, even in the face of the short-term economic pain that will inevitably result from cutting China, the world’s manufacturing powerhouse, out of Western supply chains.
That’s why it’s critical for the administration to impose its forthcoming Section 232 tariffs on pharmaceuticals only on Chinese imports and exempt medicines from America’s European allies. Putting tariffs on European pharmaceuticals, one of the continent’s main exports to America, would shatter this coalition without producing any offsetting benefits to our national security.
The U.S. undoubtedly has become dangerously overreliant on China. Most notably, China cut off exports of critical medical supplies in the early days of the COVID pandemic, leaving American hospitals without the personal protective equipment they needed to safeguard their patients and staff.
The threat of future cutoffs is all too real. Already, China has responded to the tariffs by restricting the export of rare earth minerals needed in many manufacturing processes.
Restricting exports of active pharmaceutical ingredients could be next. About 90% of all generic antibiotics that Americans consume are either made in China or with Chinese ingredients. In the event of a war — either a real one or just an escalation of the current trade war — China’s stranglehold over our antibiotic supply could prove disastrous.
Although there’s good reason to exclude China from America’s medical supply chains, there’s no reason to exclude Europe. Doing so would needlessly antagonize our allies while hurting American patients and American companies.
Many of the drugs that American patients depend on are either made exclusively in Europe or by their subsidiaries in this country. They depend on European ingredients and know-how for which there is no ready substitute.
Take Ireland, for example. Last year alone, it exported $41 billion of pharmaceuticals to the United States. Switzerland and Britain also supply many critical ingredients and finished medicines. About a third of the active pharmaceutical ingredients used in U.S. medicines come from Europe.
These are not optional goods. A patient can’t choose to skip a treatment or buy American if the only viable therapy is made by a company in Switzerland, Germany or Britain. Doctors prescribe based on what works, not what is tariffed.
In other words, a blanket tariff on medicines would spike drug prices for American consumers and companies. In 2023 alone, the U.S. imported $128 billion in pharmaceuticals from Europe. Even a small tariff would cost Americans billions of dollars at the pharmacy counter, in higher insurance premiums, and through increased government spending on programs such as Medicare.
The trade war with China, though painful, is necessary. America cannot continue relying on our greatest geopolitical adversary for many critical products.
To win this conflict, we will need a united front with our allies. Putting tariffs on European drugs would amount to a friendly fire incident that would shatter the alliance and make American patients collateral damage. The only way out of this conundrum would be a trans-Atlantic free trade zone.
Dr. Wolfgang Klietmann is a former clinical pathologist and medical microbiologist at Harvard Medical School.
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