The United States Ministry of Commerce opened an investigation on Monday to determine the “effects on national security” of the importation of pharmaceutical products and semiconductors, according to government documents subject to the official magazine. This investigation is a necessary first step that could allow Donald Trump to publish a decree that imposes customs duties in these two sectors of activities, in the viewfinder of the US president from his return to the White House.
The survey must begin on Wednesday with a comment call, which must last a maximum of 21 days. It uses a law article that allows the president to impose customs tariffs on products if it is shown that their import volume represents a risk for national security. Contacted, none of the main pharmaceutical laboratories, rather than the Association of Pharmacy Professionals (ASHP), has responded immediately.
A disposition is almost never used before Trump’s first mandate
For its part, the White House recalled that “President Trump was perfectly clear about the importance of relocating the industries that are essential for our national and economic security. It is in application of the president’s desire that the Ministry of Commerce Lance this survey on pharmacists and semiconductors.”
However, the provision, voted in 1962, had never been used before Donald Trump, during his first mandate, to justify taxes on tax and aluminum imports. The US president again based on this clause, known as article 232, to reintroduce in mid -March of the Customs of 25% in steel and aluminum, as well as in the car. Donald Trump has made customs duties the cornerstone of his economic policy, as well as an important diplomatic tool to obtain concessions from other countries.
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Source: BFM TV
