{"id":581759,"date":"2026-04-03T00:32:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T00:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/581759\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T00:32:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T00:32:14","slug":"australia-hit-with-100-per-cent-levy-on-patented-drugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/581759\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia hit with 100 per cent levy on patented drugs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Michael<\/p>\n

Updated April 3, 2026 \u2014 10:13am,first published 7:18am<\/p>\n

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Washington: The Trump administration is imposing a 100 per cent tariff on imports of patented drugs, with Australian-made pharmaceuticals subject to the highest possible rate despite carve-outs for other countries.<\/p>\n

The Albanese government and the opposition expressed concern about the impact on Australian drugmakers and the US government\u2019s shift away from free trade.<\/p>\n

\"USUS President Donald Trump signed an executive order to impose 100 per cent tariffs on foreign pharmaceuticals.Bloomberg<\/p>\n

However, Australia\u2019s largest biotech firm, CSL, could face a lower tariff rate or be exempt from the new duties, which will not apply to products derived from blood plasma in certain circumstances.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday afternoon (Washington time) enacting a long-signalled intention to impose tariffs on foreign pharmaceuticals<\/a> in a bid to re-shore production in the US.<\/p>\n

The standard rate is 100 per cent, although several countries received a discount as part of broader trade deals. The European Union, Japan, South Korea and Switzerland are all subject to a 15 per cent tariff, and the United Kingdom even lower.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we are always working with our trading partners and close allies like Australia, Australia does not have a special pharma tariff rate,\u201d a White House official told this masthead.<\/p>\n

\"CSLCSL headquarters in Melbourne. The manufacturer of plasma-derived therapies could be exempt from Trump\u2019s new tariffs.Bloomberg<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s executive order reduces the tariff to 20 per cent for companies that move production to the US, and to zero if that country also gives the US \u201cmost favoured nation\u201d status in relation to drug pricing.<\/p>\n

ASX-listed biotech giant CSL \u2013 which has plants in the US, Australia and Europe \u2013 last year announced a $US1.5 billion ($2.17 billion) expansion of its American operations. Workers broke ground last month at the company\u2019s manufacturing facility in Kankakee, Illinois \u2013 with the expansion set to be completed by 2031.<\/p>\n

A White House official said CSL would need to submit its plan to the US Commerce Department, which has the discretion to grant exemptions.<\/p>\n

The text of Trump\u2019s executive order said the tariff will be set to zero for plasma derived therapies if they come from a country with a current or forthcoming trade deal with the US, or they meet an urgent US health need.<\/p>\n

\"USUS Trade Representative Jamieson Greer briefly speaks outside the White House on Thursday.Bloomberg<\/p>\n

Australia has not signed a trade deal with the Trump administration, but the two countries have a long-standing free trade agreement.<\/p>\n

During a brief appearance at the White House, Trump\u2019s trade tsar Jamieson Greer said the executive order was focused on deals that had \u201calready been made\u201d with companies making drugs in countries such as Australia, Austria and France. He did not take questions.<\/p>\n

A CSL spokesman said the company was pleased the Trump administration had carved out plasma-derived therapies, which constituted the vast majority of its trade into the US.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re reviewing the materials released today and will continue working with the administration to ensure access to plasma therapies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"HealthHealth Minister Mark Butler is \u201cpretty confident\u201d CSL will be exempted, but has concerns for other pharmaceutical exporters.Alex Ellinghausen<\/p>\n

A spokesman for Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell said the Albanese government was disappointed by the tariff decision and would strongly argue for their removal.<\/p>\n

Appearing on Channel Seven\u2019s Sunrise on Friday morning, Health Minister Mark Butler said the government was \u201cpretty confident\u201d CSL would be exempted, but had serious concerns for other exporters.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

He also indicated Australia was not for turning on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, about which the US administration has also raised concerns<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no way we\u2019re negotiating about those fundamental elements of the PBS that have served Australia so well for 80 years,\u201d Butler said.<\/p>\n

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor said the Coalition believed in free trade. \u201cThis is obviously not welcome news, we don\u2019t want to see it,\u201d he told Sunrise. \u201cWe\u2019ll work with the government to do anything we have to [do] to get it overturned or get an exemption for Australian exporters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senior Trump administration officials, speaking on a briefing call to reporters, said large companies would have 120 days until the new tariffs kick in. Smaller companies will have six months. They said any new facilities must be completed by the end of Trump\u2019s term in January 2029.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"US<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIn those 120 days, our expectation is they will announce re-shoring plans which will reduce [the tariffs] to 20 per cent,\u201d one senior administration official said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe expect the lion\u2019s share of the world\u2019s patented pharmaceuticals to be building in America. This was not a secret, we\u2019ve been talking about this endlessly over the past six months. Everybody knows it\u2019s coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tariff announcement was timed to mark one year since Trump\u2019s so-called Liberation Day, when he imposed sweeping \u201creciprocal\u201d tariffs on almost all US trading partners. Those tariffs were ruled unlawful by the US Supreme Court<\/a> in February.<\/p>\n

The pharmaceutical tariffs are enacted under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, rather than presidential emergency powers, and were not covered by the Supreme Court\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n

Trump also adjusted tariffs on steel, aluminium and copper<\/a>, which are currently set at 50 per cent and involve complex formulas for the steel component of various products.<\/p>\n

Officials said that if a product has less than 15 per cent steel, the additional tariff will now be set to zero \u2013 but other tariffs still apply. If the product exceeds 15 per cent steel, the steel tariff will be 25 per cent on the total value of the product.<\/p>\n

There are also moves to reduce what US officials said was an attempt to \u201cfool the tariff process\u201d by claiming the products were worth less than their real value.<\/p>\n

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what\u2019s making headlines around the world. Sign up for our weekly What in the World newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"MichaelMichael Koziol<\/a> is the North America correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political reporter in Canberra.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated April 3, 2026 \u2014 10:13am,first published 7:18am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-581759","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}