by Sydney (Reuters) -Australia is “urgently looking for more details” about the threat of US President Donald Trump to increase rates to 200% on pharmaceutical imports, treasurer Jim Chalmers said Wednesday.
Trump announced plans to impose rates on medicines, as well as a rate of 50% for the entry of copper, during a cabinet meeting in Washington hours earlier.
“These are clearly very worrying developments,” Chalmers told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Wednesday.
Chalmers said that while the US was good for less than 1% of the copper output of Australia, the pharmaceutical industry “exposed much more” to the impact of rates.
“Much more are the developments about medicines,” he said. “And that is why we are looking for – urgently looking for – some more details about what has been announced.”
Medicines and medicines are among the best exports from Australia to the US, with about a $ 2.1 billion ($ 1.37 billion) in shipments last year, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Chalmers also said that the pharmaceutical benefit schedule, a national program that subsidizes a wide range of prescription drugs for Australians, was “not on the table” as a negotiating ship to escape at the endangered rates.
“We are not willing to compromise the PBS. We are not willing to negotiate or exchange what a very important characteristic of the health system is,” he said.
For months, American lobby groups have put pressure on Trump to take revenge on the PBS via rates, and claim that the “gross and discriminatory” price regime undermines the American export.
($ 1 = 1,5347 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Christine Chen in Sydney; Edit by Michael Perry)
