U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled a phased tariff plan on generic drugs on Tuesday, which he said will promote the return of generic drug production to the United States.
In a post on social media platform Truth Social, Trump said that starting August 1 of this year, the U.S. will continue to exempt all imported generic drugs from tariffs for the next two years.
In the third year, a 100-percent import tariff will apply to generic drugs.
Starting in the fourth year, the import tariff on generic drugs will surge to 200 percent.
Trump said that this move aims to encourage the return of generic drug production to his country and to penalize companies that fail to build factories and facilities in the U.S. within the specified time frame.
U.S. policies regarding patented drugs, brand-name drugs, and innovative drugs will remain unchanged.
According to media reports, generic drug companies find it difficult to absorb the costs of high tariffs due to their low profit margins and reliance on global manufacturing networks.
Once implemented, these measures are expected to deal a severe blow to major generic drug exporting countries such as India.
Trump unveils phased tariff plan on generic drugs
No one can stop the exchanges and cooperation across the Taiwan Strait, or the mutually beneficial outcomes they bring, a spokeswoman of China's central government stressed on Wednesday.
Zhang Han, spokeswoman for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, made the comments at a press conference in Beijing in response to a Taiwan official's remarks that the two sides of the Strait should "decouple."
Zhang noted that data about cross-Strait trade in the first half of 2026 have fully proven the strong complementarity between the industrial structures across the Strait and the broad potential for further cooperation.
"In the first half of 2026, the cross-Strait trade volume reached 185 billion U.S. dollars. The Chinese mainland's imports from Taiwan totaled 133.1 billion dollars, up 22.5 percent year on year, while its exports to Taiwan grew 32.9 percent. This fully illustrates that the industrial structures across the Strait are highly complementary, promising broad prospects for cooperation. Enhancing economic and trade cooperation and deepening integrated development across the Strait comply with the common interests of compatriots and businesses on both sides, and are also the natural outcome of economic laws and market principles," said Zhang.
"Cross-Strait exchanges, cooperation, mutual benefits and win-win results are an unstoppable trend that no one can block. The DPP authorities seek to rely on external forces for secession, shamelessly sells out Taiwan, panders to foreign powers, and hollows out Taiwan's competitive industries. These actions are an outright act of harming Taiwan and bringing disaster upon it," said the spokeswoman.
Mutually beneficial cross-Strait cooperation unstoppable: spokeswoman
