U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Seashore, Florida, U.S., Feb. 18, 2025.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
President Donald Trump mentioned he could broaden the scope of U.S. tariffs on imports to incorporate cars, prescribed drugs and semiconductors.
In remarks to reporters Tuesday, Trump mentioned the duties can be round 25% and “go very considerably greater over a course of a yr.” The president didn’t point out whether or not the brand new tariffs would apply to all autos coming into the U.S. or be focused towards sure nations however mentioned they may begin as early as April 2.
Nonetheless, the menace represents a broadening within the administration’s aggressive commerce coverage that already has included 25% tariffs on metal and aluminum imports set to take impact in March.
The nations with the largest auto exports to the U.S. are Mexico, Japan and Canada.
Trump mentioned the tariffs already are having the specified impact, with firms domiciled abroad wanting to return again to the U.S.
“I have been contacted by a number of the greatest firms on the earth, and due to what we’re doing economically and thru tariffs and incentives, they wish to come again into america,” he mentioned.
“After they come again into america they usually have their plant or manufacturing unit right here, there isn’t any tariff,” Trump added. “So we wish to give them a bit of little bit of an opportunity.”
On prescribed drugs, the nations feeling the largest influence possible can be Japan and India. The financial influence can be unclear, although the tariffs would possibly worsen prices and trigger shortages initially.
“The tariffs might drive up drug costs for US sufferers, exacerbate drug provide shortages, and push producers to hunt various markets,” mentioned Ophelia Chan, senior enterprise fundamentals analyst at GlobalData. Chan additionally famous that firms within the trade “could reply by relocating manufacturing and trials to the US or different tariff-free nations, although the total results are nonetheless unsure.”
On semiconductors, Trump didn’t point out once they would occur. These levies would influence Taiwan Semiconductor, which offers chips to firms together with Nvidia and Apple.
