India, April 12 -- US President Donald Trump announced this week plans to impose heavy tariffs on the pharmaceutical industry "soon", aiming to bring drug manufacturing back to American soil. He called it a "tremendous problem" that the US is no longer able to produce sufficient antibiotics for its own population.

Speaking at a Republican Party fundraiser on Tuesday, Trump said, as quoted by the BBC: "We're going to be announcing very shortly a major tariff on pharmaceuticals. And when they hear that, they will leave China."

Addressing reporters aboard Air Force One last week, he said that "pharma" tariffs would be imposed "at a level that you haven't really seen before", and confirmed these would be revealed "in the near future."

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