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At a White House press conference last month, President Donald Trump announced a breakthrough on lower drug prices and promised he would take action against European countries that are not paying their fair share for drugs discovered and invented by Americans.
“That’s why my administration is taking historic action to investigate the unfair and discriminatory trade practices of other countries that extort money from our drug manufacturers in order to pass the cost on to American consumers,” Trump said.
financial Times Now reporting that action is coming soon:
The impending investigation, which would fall under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, will consider whether any U.S. trading partners are underpaying for the drugs, said three people familiar with the matter.
Trump has repeatedly complained that other countries pay less than the U.S. for drugs and has signaled he will take trade action against countries that refuse to “equalize.”
Forcing European countries to give up their price controls through strong trade agreements would reduce our trade deficit while keeping the US ahead of China in inventing new drugs.
If we were to import socialist price controls from Europe, like Obama, Biden, and Pelosi, it would destroy our pharmaceutical industry and put treatments for devastating diseases out of reach for many patients.
As Chris Klomp, deputy administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, said, “And it might actually work for a short period of time, but very soon it would have completely destroyed innovation in pharmaceuticals. It would have destroyed American primacy in manufacturing life-saving drugs. There are about 20,000 known diseases on the planet. We have treatments or cures for less than 10% of them. So that’s a bad strategy.” “, and will limit access to those who need those medicines most.”
If we want to be serious about lowering drug prices and maintaining American preeminence in drug development, we need to stop playing by the globalists’ rules. In his first term, President Trump prioritized American workers by renegotiating unfavorable trade deals and pressuring NATO to meet its financial obligations and pay their fair share.
America doesn’t need to copy failed systems – we need to lead. Instead of changing our prices to conform with socialist states, Trump is demanding that wealthy European countries pay their fair share. If anyone should match prices, it’s them, not us.
By making other countries pay a fair share for their drugs, new trade deals could provide a more comprehensive approach to lowering prices for Americans.
“Our trade policy will prioritize that foreign countries pay their fair share for American-made drugs, so that our drug companies have more financial resources to accelerate the development of new treatments,” Trump said.
Americans deserve affordable medicine, but we also deserve the best medicine in the world. We won’t get that by copying socialist systems that limit care and stifle innovation. We will achieve this by highlighting American ingenuity, holding foreign freeloaders accountable, and demanding a system that ultimately puts Americans first.
