President Donald Trump said US fees on imports of semiconductors and pharmaceutical products will be announced “next week or something, while the administration is preparing to reach economic-key sectors in its effort to remodel global trade.
“We will initially put a small rate on pharmaceutical products, but in a year-at most a year and a half-it will rise to 150% and then to 250%, because we want pharmaceutical products to be manufactured in our country,” Trump said on Tuesday in an interview with CNBC.
“We will also announce about semiconductors and chips, which is a separate category,” continued the president.
Free tool
XP Simulator
Learn in 1 minute how much your money can yield
The Trade Department has been investigating the semiconductor market since April to prepare the land for possible industry rates that should generate nearly $ 700 billion in global sales. Under Trump, the US has already imposed tariffs on car imports, automotive parts, steel and aluminum.
Imported chips rates threaten to significantly increase costs for large data centers, including Microsoft, OpenAi, Meta and Amazon, who plan to spend billions of dollars on the purchase of advanced semiconductors needed to boost their artificial intelligence business.
Trump has emphasized the use of tariffs to stimulate investments in domestic manufacturing, including chip production, and on Tuesday praised Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) plans to expand its presence in the US.
Continues after advertising
“You know, we have the largest in the world, as you know, Taiwan, who is coming and investing $ 300 billion in Arizona, building the largest factory in the world for chips and semiconductors,” he said.
It is not clear where Trump took this value. TSMC foresees a total investment of US $ 165 billion in the coming years for six advanced semiconductor factories, two packaging facilities and a research center in Arizona.
TSMC and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for clarification on these statements.
Continues after advertising
The president also threatened severe rates on the pharmaceutical industry to force the manufacture back to the US. Trump has recently demanded that large drug suppliers drastically reduce costs or faces non -specified additional penalties.
The largest pharmacists in the world, including Merck and Eli Lilly, operate dozens of globally manufacturing units. Almost 90% of US biotechnology companies depend on imported components to at least half of their approved products, according to Biotechnology Innovation Organization.
Sectoral tariffs on pharmaceutical products, metals and other industries result from commercial investigations that can last about nine months and are imposed for national security reasons, according to Section 232 of Trade Expansion Act. This legal basis is considered more solid than the emergency powers used by Trump for specific tariffs per country, facing court challenges. These so-called reciprocal tariffs are expected to take effect on Thursday.
Continues after advertising
© 2025 Bloomberg L.P.
