Despite the remarkable gains in wealth and living standards that free trade has brought to the U.S. and the world, President Trump is pursuing even more tariffs. One of his latest targets is a potential 250 percent tax on pharmaceutical products, a move that drives up healthcare costs while worsening Americans’ health.
Despite claims that other countries will pay, tariffs are a tax on American consumers. Other countries may lose income, but not because the U.S. collects it as taxes. Instead, it will be because Americans will to varying degrees be deprived of their products. Some may claim that these goods could be made in America, but for many there was a reason they weren’t produced here in the first place. For example, generic drugs are already less profitable than name brands, even before considering high American labor and more expensive regulatory compliance.
Read the full article here
Justin Leventhal is a senior policy analyst for the American Consumer Institute, a nonprofit education and research organization. For more information about the Institute, visit www.TheAmericanConsumer.Org or follow us on X @ConsumerPal