President Donald Trump [Photo courtesy of the White House]
While pharmaceuticals are exempt from the tariffs, there’s no such exclusion for medical devices. Other exemptions include copper, semiconductors and certain minerals that are not available in the U.S., as well as USMCA compliant goods from Mexico and Canada.
Trump posted tariff rates for individual countries to the social media website formerly known as Twitter (now called X). One notable omission is Russia.
The only mention of medical devices in a White House release was in reference to India, which the Trump Administration said “imposes their own uniquely burdensome and/or duplicative testing and certification requirements in sectors such as chemicals, telecom products, and medical devices that make it difficult or costly for American companies to sell their products in India.”
Medical device manufacturers including Intuitive have ramped up warnings to investors that tariffs could hurt their bottom lines.
Previously: Medtronic CEO Geoff Martha talks Trump import taxes and supply chain
Economists say tariffs not only increase prices buyers pay for imports, but can also increase the prices for non-tariffed products that would otherwise cost less as demand climbs for those alternatives.
Medical device industry association AdvaMed had hoped for a medical device industry exemption, warning that tariffs could harm patients.
“We maintain that the potential supply chain disruption and its downstream effects on patients remain a risk, should tariffs be implemented. Shortages of critical medical technologies are a real concern in our initial modeling,” AdvaMed President and CEO Scott Whitaker said in February. “Tariffs could hold back the innovation potential of the U.S. medtech industry. R&D spending would likely be the first and most direct casualty, threatening America’s medtech innovation leadership. And increased tariffs may even have the unintended consequence of boosting the competitiveness of medtech industries of other nations.”
Whitaker reacted to the tariffs after Trump’s announcement, saying he was “disappointed in the news of the Administration’s intent to levy broad tariffs that will negatively impact American medical technology and innovation.”
“The medtech industry is an American success story made up of remarkable American companies that are saving, improving, and extending lives,” Whitaker continued. “If implemented as proposed, broad-based tariffs of this nature would act much as an excise tax. It will have a negative impact on innovation, cost jobs, and increase overall costs to the health care system. Historically, industries with a meaningful humanitarian mission have been exempted from broad tariffs, and as a result we have seen no to low tariffs on medtech from all key trading partners.”
“While disappointed in this initial announcement, we look forward to continuing our conversations with the White House to help them understand the important role the medtech industry plays in our health care ecosystem, the value it provides to patients, and the importance of the industry to continued U.S. economic growth,” he said. “The medtech industry should be exempted from these tariffs.”
