Labor and Coalition in lockstep as Trump threatens to pull pharma tariffs forward
The announcement comes as a blow to Australia's third-largest export to the United States, worth $2.2 billion last year, with the ASX suffering its biggest single-day fall since May.
Speaking from Washington on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST), Trump said he was intending to have tariffs 'probably at the end of the month', although when the suggested 200 per cent tariff would be enforced is unclear.
'We're going to start off with a low tariff and give the pharmaceutical companies a year or so to build, and then we're going to make it a very high tariff,' he told reporters.
Jim Chalmers and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese are overseas but a government spokesperson pointed to the treasurer's remarks last week describing the Australian pharmaceutical industry as 'exposed' but declaring the government would defend the PBS.
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'Our Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is not something that we're willing to trade away or do deals on. That won't change,' Chalmers told Radio National last Wednesday when Trump first mentioned the 200 per cent figure.
'We see the PBS as a fundamental part of healthcare in Australia. We're not willing to compromise the PBS. We're not willing to negotiate or trade away what is a really important feature of the health system.'
Opposition spokesman for trade Kevin Hogan said on Wednesday that the Coalition intended to work with the government in a bipartisan manner to safeguard the PBS.
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