On September 25th, U.S. president Donald Trump announced steep tariffs on pharmaceuticals, heavy-duty trucks, home renovation materials, and furniture.
The late-evening announcement marks the president’s toughest trade policy since April, when he unveiled reciprocal tariffs on nearly every U.S. trading partner worldwide.
The president took to his Truth Social platform to declare that, starting October 1st,
we will be imposing a 100% Tariff on any branded or patented Pharmaceutical Product, unless a Company IS BUILDING their Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plant in America.
The decision drew criticism from U.S. ally Australia, which—according to the UN Comtrade Database—exported an estimated $1.35 billion (€1.16 billion) worth of pharmaceutical products to the United States in 2024.
Australian health minister Mark Butler said Friday that the higher rates were
not in the American consumers’ interest…particularly given the degree to which their exporters to Australia benefit from that free trade as well.
In a separate Truth Social post, Trump announced a 25% tariff on “all ‘Heavy (Big) Trucks’ made in other parts of the world” to support U.S. manufacturers such as “Peterbilt, Kenworth, Freightliner, Mack Trucks and others.”
Trump said the truck tariffs were for “many reasons, but above all else, for National Security purposes!”
Earlier this year, the Trump administration initiated a Section 232 probe into truck imports to “determine the effects on national security,” setting the stage for Thursday’s announcement. Section 232 is a trade law provision that grants the president broad authority to impose tariffs or other import restrictions when such imports are considered a threat to national security.
Trump claims to be focused on revitalizing U.S. manufacturing through targeted trade measures, representing a strategic shift from the policy of relying on an open, import-dependent economy.It remains unclear how the new tariffs, set to take effect next week, will interact with the existing trade measures.
