Aussie pharma giant brushes off ‘harmful’ Trump tariff
Jacob Shteyman |
Australia’s largest pharmaceutical company is confident it won’t be affected after Donald Trump announced massive tariffs on medicines shipped to the United States.
As of Friday morning, it was unclear whether CSL would be directly impacted by the US president’s proposed 100 per cent tariffs, which he announced in a post on social media.
CSL, Australia’s seventh-largest public firm by market cap, makes up the bulk of Australia’s $2.2 billion pharmaceutical export trade to the US.
The ASX blue-chip stock’s main exports to the US are medicines derived from blood plasma manufactured at its plant in Melbourne.
But the firm also has a substantial footprint in the US, including 19,000 employees.
“CSL will be actively monitoring further announcements from the administration in relation to the detail of the tariffs,” a CSL spokesperson said in a statement.
“As per previous market guidance, we do not expect any material impact from these tariffs.”
CSL collects the blood plasma that it uses for its Melbourne plant in the US due to prohibitions on sourcing plasma in Australia and has been expanding its capabilities in the territory.
Most vaccines CSL sells in the US are made at its vaccine-manufacturing plant in North Carolina.
The company said it was confident it would be exempted from the imposts, given Mr Trump said companies building manufacturing facilities in the US would not be impacted.
CSL’s share price slumped 3.6 per cent shortly after the stock market opened, before retracing some of its losses to sit 1.7 per cent lower by late morning.
Trade Minister Don Farrell spoke with US trade representative Jamieson Greer on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit during the week, but there was no indication from the Americans about an impending tariff announcement.
The opposition said it was deeply concerning that Australian pharmaceutical exporters could be subjected to “harmful” tariffs.
“The coalition strongly opposes the imposition of tariffs on Australia by the US and we stand ready to help the government in any way to help protect Australia’s pharmaceutical sector and the jobs of Australians,” Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said in a statement.
US pharmaceutical companies lobbying the White House have previously put Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme in their crosshairs, arguing the government program unfairly suppresses prices.
The Albanese government has flatly refused any negotiation on the PBS.
AAP
