United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday that he would expect India to be “concerned” after US President Donald Trump announced that Washington would impose 200% tariffs on generic drugs from August 2028, Forbes reported.
Generics are non-branded medicines with the same active ingredients as other drugs already authorised for sale.
Rubio was asked whether India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had brought up the proposed tariffs during their meeting in the Philippines’ Manila.
“I mean, not with me, we did not get into depth on pharmaceuticals today,” Rubio told a reporter. “Obviously, I would expect them to be concerned about it, but they did not raise it today.”
On Tuesday, Trump announced that all generic drugs being brought into the US will continue not to attract any levies for two years starting from August 1. However, after the two-year period, the tariff rate will be raised to 100% for one year and to 200% thereafter.
The move is expected to impact India adversely as the country supplies nearly half of the generic drugs sold in the US, according to the IQVIA Institute. This helps access to critical medicines at affordable prices.
India exported pharmaceuticals worth $8.7 billion to the US in 2024. This accounted for 31% of India’s pharmaceutical exports. Most of the drugs exported were generics.
In September, Trump announced a 100% tariff on the import of branded or patented pharmaceutical products into the US, unless the company was “building” a manufacturing facility in the country.
Trump said on Tuesday that the tariffs on generic drugs were being imposed to reshore “generic pharmaceutical production into America, with a penalty to those companies that decide not to build plant and equipment within the stated period of time given to them”.
He added that the objective of the policy was to “protect” Americans.
“Pharmaceutical facilities are being built, at a level never seen before, all over the United States of America,” said Trump.
Edited by Nachiket Deuskar.
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