For the time being, the pharmaceutical sector should not escape the single rate of 15%. The worried representative federations await details and continue their lobbying.
The European and French federations of the pharmaceutical industries expressed their concerns on Tuesday as to the trade agreement between the European Union and the United States which leaves the drug sector in uncertainty concerning customs duties.
“Customs duties on drugs are a brutal instrument that will disrupt the supply chains, will have an impact on investments in research and development, and, in the end, will harm patient access to drugs on both sides of the Atlantic,” reacted the European Federation of the Sector (EFPIA) in a press release.
The EFPIA “continues to examine the announcements concerning the US-States trade agreement, as key implications for the pharmaceutical sector remain uncertain”. US President Donald Trump and the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen concluded a customs agreement on Sunday, providing that European products exported to the United States be taxed at 15%.
Exports from the French pharmaceutical industry to the United States represented 3.8 billion euros in 2024, or 7.9% of total exports to the country, far ahead of chemicals (2.6 billion euros), machines (2.8 billion euros) and ships (1.8 billion euros).
“Deeply worrying”
Donald Trump warned that pharmaceutical products, so far exempt from a 1994 agreement from the World Trade Organization (WTO), will not benefit from special treatment, without however giving details.
In early July, he had threatened to impose 200% surcharge on pharmaceutical products imported into the United States if production was not quickly repatriated to American soil. For EFPIA, “there are more effective means that would contribute, rather than hindering, global advances in patient care and economic growth”.
The Federation calls for “rethinking the valuation of innovation” in Europe and increasing investments in innovative drugs.
For its part, the professional organization which represents the companies of the drug operating in France (Leem) estimates in a separate press release that “the situation of uncertainty on customs tariffs in the pharmaceutical sector is deeply worrying”.
“Pharmaceutical products must explicitly and permanently be excluded from any price measure,” said Leem, recalling that “drugs, vaccines, medical devices and pharmaceutical inputs are not goods like the others”.
Imposing customs tariffs on drugs would lead, according to the union, “to an increase in production costs, aggravate supply difficulties and hinder investment and research and development capacities in Europe”.
