Health Minister Mark Butler has said the US position on Australian pharmaceuticals remains uncertain, with officials working hard to establish the nature and timing of any potential tariffs on the nation’s industry.
US President Donald Trump suggested hours ago that trading partners unable to negotiate individual trade deals could be subject to sweeping tariffs ranging from 15 to 20 per cent, larger than the 10 per cent trade penalty initially proposed for Australian goods in April.
US President Donald Trump at a press conference at his golf course in Turnberry, Scotland on Monday.Credit: Getty Images
“We’re trying to make sure that we have a sense of what the US administration is planning,” Butler told ABC’s Radio National.
He said signals from Trump that Australia could face 15 to 20 per cent tariffs across the board had only emerged this morning, so he couldn’t comment specifically, but Trump’s position was “still shifting around a bit”.
“The position in relation to pharmaceuticals has changed a lot over the last couple of weeks – the nature, the timing, the scale of tariffs that might be imposed,” Butler said.
“We recognise this is a very significant challenge, including to pharmaceutical exports from Australia to the US, which by and large are blood and plasma products. We’re doing everything we can to prosecute our interests as Australians.”
Read the full article here
