Trump’s devastating new 100 per cent tariff blow for Australia – just days after he posed for that grinning selfie with Albo

By MAX AITCHISON, POLITICAL REPORTER, AUSTRALIA

Published: 20:10 EDT, 25 September 2025 | Updated: 21:00 EDT, 25 September 2025

Donald Trump has announced that the United States will slap a 100 per cent tariff on  any pharmaceuticals entering the US next week. 

The US President said will impose a 100 per cent tariff on all imports of branded or patented pharmaceutical products from October 1, unless a pharmaceutical company is building a factory in the US.

It comes just 36 hours after Anthony Albanese managed to snag a selfie with Trump. 

The two men are due to have their first one-on-one meeting on October 20 and securing a tariff exemption will no doubt be top of the Prime Minister‘s priorities given pharmaceuticals are one of Australia’s largest exports to the US. 

‘Starting October 1st, 2025, we will be imposing g a 100% Tariff on any branded or patented Pharmaceutical Product, unless a Company IS BUILDING their Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plant in America,’ Trump posted on 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.’

The US President also introduced a range of other tariffs, including a 50 per cent import tax on kitchen cabinets, 30 per cent on upholstered furniture and 25 per cent on heavy trucks.

Donald Trump has announced that the United States will slap a 100 per cent tariff on any pharmaceuticals entering the US next week

It comes just 36 hours after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese managed to snag a selfie with Trump  

He insisted the move was to protect US manufacturers from ‘unfair outside competition’.  

‘The reason for this is the large scale “FLOODING” of these products into the United States by other outside Countries,’ Trump posted on Truth Social. 

‘It is a very unfair practice, but we must protect, for National Security and other reasons, our Manufacturing process. Thank you for your attention to this matter!’

Australia exported $2.2billion in pharmaceutical products to the US last year.

This equates to around 40 per cent of Australia’s total pharmaceutical exports, according to the United Nations Comtrade database. 

However, the vast majority of those exports relate to one Australian company, CSL.

CSL sends vast quantities of plasma and other blood products to the US, according to the ABC. 

healthcare stocks were down -1.7 per cent with CSL shares at a five-year low, according to CommSec.  

Trump has previously vented his frustration that drug companies are able to sell pharmaceuticals cheaper to other countries under programs like the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has previously insisted that tariffs were an ‘act of economic self-harm’ and has said the PBS is off limits.

‘This is not for sale and is not up for negotiation. This is a part of the free trade agreement (with the US) because Labor insisted as a condition of our support for the free trade agreement,’ Albanese said in March.

‘The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is a part of who we are as Australians and we will always stand up for it.’

The Daily Mail has contacted the Department of Health for comment.  

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Trump’s devastating new 100 per cent tariff blow for Australia – just days after he posed for that grinning selfie with Albo