At a press conference in Adelaide on Friday, Health Minister Mark Butler said the government was working to understand the impacts of the announcement on Australian industry, but said the decision was not in the best interests of American consumers.
“We’ve been aware of the administration’s intention to take action against pharmaceutical imports into America, and we’ve been engaging with them and making the case why we should continue with the tariff-free trade that has characterised US-Australian relations for more than 20 years,” Butler said.
“None of these latest announcements for the US administration make a jot of difference to our determination to protect the PBS. The PBS has served Australians so incredibly well in terms of providing them with affordable access to the world’s best medicines.”
Coalition leaders described the announcement – which appears to apply to countries exporting drugs to the US – as “a shocking but unsurprising development”, pressing Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on his relationship with Trump.
“While other leaders are able to pick up the phone to the president, Anthony Albanese has not established such a relationship,” Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said in a statement released shortly before midday on Friday.
“We remain unsure whether the government made any representations on behalf of Australia and our important pharmaceutical industry … this is yet another issue the prime minister must address in his meeting with the US president in October, but he should not wait until then. Ambassador [to the US Kevin] Rudd should be working in earnest to seek an immediate reprieve for Australian exporters,” the statement read.
The tariff would come into effect less than three weeks before Albanese and Trump are set to meet at the White House on October 20.
The announcement was the third in a series of tariff announcements issued through Truth Social. In one post, the president announced 50 per cent tariffs on kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities and associated products, and a 30 per cent tariff on upholstered furniture, citing “the large scale ‘FLOODING’ of these products into the United States by other outside Countries”.
Trump also announced the imposition of a 25 per cent tariff on “on all ‘Heavy (Big!) Trucks’ made in other parts of the World”.
The office of Trade Minister Don Farrell was also contacted for comment.
