US tariffs cast shadow on Italy's pharmaceutical exports

The United States' levying of a 15 percent so-called "reciprocal tariff" on most European Union goods has shaken Italy's pharmaceutical export sector, one of the country's most valuable industries.

Pharmaceuticals and chemical products have long been among Italy's highest value-added exports to the U.S.

Data shows that in 2024, Italian pharmaceutical exports to the U.S. reached about 10 billion euros. With the tariffs now in place, additional costs could rise as high as 1.95 billion euros. Much of this burden, industry leaders warned, will inevitably be passed down the supply chain.

The European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations cautioned that tariffs are a "blunt instrument." In a sector marked by tight regulation and strong demand, it said, higher costs may damage the confidence of U.S. distributors and patients alike.

"The tariffs have brought a completely uncertain period to our export market. The uncertainty is so strong that in the past three or four months, orders from the U.S. have plummeted. Orders bound for the American market have dropped by 80 percent," said Gian Maria Morra, head of the imports and exports department of an Italian pharma-cosmetics trading company.

To mitigate the impacts brought by the tariffs, Italian pharmaceutical exporters are shifting strategies to adapt in the short term, focusing on spreading risks, rebalancing markets, and optimizing product portfolios.

Industry experts pointed out that firms are prioritizing exports to more stable regions such as the EU and emerging markets, while diversifying product lines and production processes to better withstand uncertainty.

"Our response is geographical diversification and a focus on products with high technological content. This is definitely the direction we will head towards in the future. As for manufacturing companies, it is still difficult to predict—pharmaceutical production cannot simply be relocated at will," said Morra.

The pharmaceutical federation also warned that the new U.S. tariff framework poses a dual threat.

In the short term, many European firms cannot adjust prices quickly enough, forcing them to absorb costs, eroding profits, and straining supply chains—potentially making it harder for patients to access medicines. In the longer term, billions of euros may be diverted away from research and development, weakening innovation and ultimately harming patients worldwide.

The federation stressed that this policy breaks a 30-year consensus of zero tariffs on medicines, risks sparking shortages, and undermines trust across the transatlantic market.

"If we cannot predict where business is heading, investment decisions will be affected. Reduced investment will weaken the economy in the medium term. I believe the tariff issue has already led to a decline in trust between European and American consumers and companies. I see this as very negative," said Morra.

US tariffs cast shadow on Italy's pharmaceutical exports

US tariffs cast shadow on Italy's pharmaceutical exports

US tariffs cast shadow on Italy's pharmaceutical exports

US tariffs cast shadow on Italy's pharmaceutical exports

More than 770 high-tech companies have packed into 33 themed buildings at China's Xiong'an New Area, turning floor proximity into business partnerships in a government-engineered experiment to build innovation clusters outside the capital Beijing.

On April 1, 2017, China announced plans to establish the Xiong'an New Area, located about 100 kilometers southwest of Beijing. The aim was to build a green city on an area of 1,770 square kilometers, featuring innovation and providing a national model of high-quality development.

Over the past nine years, facilities such as the Zhongguancun Science Park have begun high-quality operations in Xiong'an. In the Zhongguancun Science Park's low-altitude economy building, Zhu Xu, co-founder of a Beijing drone company, dropped in on a company located one floor below his to explore collaboration opportunities.

As the building houses numerous upstream and downstream enterprises in the low-altitude economy industry, with potential partners just a floor or two away, Zhu frequently receives invitations to matchmaking events where participants analyze the market and discuss technologies together.

"(The Zhongguancun Science Park) organizes matchmaking events on a regular basis. At one such session, we learned about a company on the 7th floor that share some technical similarities with us. We spoke with them promptly, and now we are gradually carrying out research and development and cooperation together," said Zhu.

Zhu's company moved to Xiong'an in Oct 2025. Shortly after relocating, Zhu began joint research and development with the company on the 7th floor. Together, they have upgraded drones to support remote intelligent ground operation, quickly developing a mature autonomous drone operation system.

"We open up real-world application scenarios to enterprises. Through various activities, companies link up naturally, and collaborations within the building have happened effortlessly," said Li Yue, deputy head of the Industry, Information Technology and Data Bureau of the Xiong'an New Area.

Zhu is among many people who pursue a career and a life in the Xiong'an New Area, which has been transformed from a stretch of raw land to a mapped plan, and then to a city -- a modern new town springing up in a matter of nine years.

In the process of relieving Beijing of functions non-essential to its role as China's capital, renowned universities and research institutes, major state-owned companies as well as start-ups are relocated to this vibrant area.

So far, more than 4,000 Beijing-origin companies have been relocated to Xiong'an, and more than 400 centrally administrated state-owned enterprises have set branches in the city.

Construction is rapidly ongoing on the campus buildings of four universities in the Xiong'an New Area -- Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing University of Science and Technology, Beijing Forestry University and China University of Geosciences.

In less than a decade, Xiong'an has adhered to high standards of planning and design, adopting a "moving in after infrastructure is in place" approach, ensuring that networks of water, electricity, gas, roads and bridges are established first.

Dubbed the "city of the future", Xiong'an is undergoing rapid changes. The developed area spans around 215 square kilometers with total investment exceeding one trillion yuan (about 145 billion U.S. dollars) and over 5,300 buildings shaping the urban skyline, housing 1.41 million residents and 669 high-tech enterprises.

Meanwhile, Xiong'an is becoming greener and more biodiverse. Since 2017, a total of 32,200 hectares of new afforested land has emerged in Xiong'an, bringing the total green area to nearly 50,000 hectares. The forest coverage rate has risen from 11 percent to 35.1 percent, according to official data.

China's Xiong'an New Area clusters tech firms in themed towers, spurring vertical supply chains