By Jessica Wang

Copyright news

The punishing new levy is due to start on October 1, in just five days, according to the US President’s Friday morning post on Truth Social.

All imported pharmaceutical goods will be included in the ban unless the “company is building their pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in America,” it read.

“‘Is building’ will be defined as ‘breaking ground’ and/ or ‘under construction,’” it read.

“There will, therefore, be no tariff on these pharmaceutical products if construction has started.”

Australia exports about $2.2bn of pharmaceutical goods to the US, which is more than 40 per cent of our total pharmaceutical exports of $4.9bn.

Previously, the Trump administration had threatened punishing pharma tariffs of up to 250 per cent, however Mr Trump suggested countries would be given about a year’s notice to negotiate.

The announcement also comes ahead of Anthony Albanese’s first in-person meeting with Mr Trump on October 20 at the White House.

The Prime Minister has held four phone calls with his US counterpart and the pair shared a selfie at a New York event hosted by Mr Trump and the US First Lady Melania Trump earlier this week.

Both Labor and the Coalition have repeatedly said the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme will not be used to negotiate a tariff exemption, with Australian goods facing a 50 per cent levy on steel, aluminium and copper imports, a 25 per cent tariff on cars, light trucks and automotive parts, and a baseline 10 per cent levy.

The opposition said it was “deeply concerning” that Australian pharmaceutical products would be hit with the punishing tariffs from October 1, and said Australia’s US ambassador Kevin Rudd needed to “be working in earnest to seek an immediate reprieve for Australian exporters”.

“The 100 per cent tariff announced today puts this critical trade at risk, as well as the jobs thousands of people it employs and the savings Australians have invested in this sector,” the Coalition said in a joint statement between Sussan ley, health spokeswoman Anne Ruston, and trade spokesman Kevin Hogan.

“This is a shocking but unsurprising development and it is moments like this when a strong direct relationship with the President of the United States is critical to help save Aussie jobs.

“While other leaders are able to pick up the phone to the President, Anthony Albanese has not established such a relationship.”

The opposition has said it stands “ready to help the government in any way to help protect Australia’s pharmaceutical sector and the jobs of Australians”.

In a series of posts shared on Friday, Mr Trump also flagged a 50 per cent tariff on “kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities and associated products” also slated to start on October 1, as well as a 30 per cent fee on imported upholstered furniture.

“The reason for this is the large scale ‘flooding’ of these products into the United States by other outside countries,” he wrote.

“It is a very unfair practice but we must protect, for National Security and other reasons, our manufacturing process.”

There will also be a 25 per cent tariff on external “Heavy (Big!) Trucks” to so US “Great Large Truck Company Manufacturers” like “Peterbilt, Kenworth, Freightliner, Mack Trucks and others” are protected from “outside interruptions”.