US widens Section 232

A trade law that started with steel mills is now reaching into medicine cabinets. On April 2, 2026, President Donald Trump signed two Section 232 proclamations, one tightening tariffs on steel, aluminum, and copper and another creating new tariffs on patented pharmaceuticals and their ingredients. (whitehouse.gov) Section 232 is the part of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 that lets the president restrict imports after the Commerce Department says those imports threaten national security. The law gives Commerce up to 270 days to investigate and send a report to the president. (congress.gov) For years, that tool was mostly about metals. Steel and aluminum tariffs began in 2018, copper was added in July 2025, and the April 2, 2026 metals proclamation rewrote how those tariffs are calculated. (whitehouse.gov) The metals change sounds technical, but it hits real invoices. Before April 2026, many derivative products were taxed only on the value of the metal inside them; now the tariff applies to the full customs value of the imported product. (whitecase.com) That means a foreign-made machine with steel parts is treated less like a bag of ingredients and more like a finished appliance at the border. White House guidance says products made entirely or almost entirely of steel, aluminum, or copper now face a 50% tariff on full value, while many derivative products face 25%. (whitehouse.gov) The pharmaceutical order is the bigger break with the past. Proclamation 11020 says patented drugs, active pharmaceutical ingredients, and key starting materials can be treated as national-security goods because the Commerce Department found import dependence in medicines used for cancer, rare diseases, autoimmune disorders, and infections. (federalregister.gov) The administration’s own numbers show why it made that argument. The proclamation says about 53% of patented pharmaceutical products distributed in the United States were produced outside the country in 2025, and only 15% of patented active pharmaceutical ingredients by volume were made domestically for the United States market. (federalregister.gov) The tariff is not aimed at every pill on a pharmacy shelf. Legal analyses of the proclamation say the covered products are narrower than the original 2025 investigation and focus on goods in listed tariff categories that are also tied to valid United States patents and listed in Food and Drug Administration books for approved branded drugs. (cov.com) That carveout matters because generic drugs are treated differently. Foley Hoag’s summary says generic pharmaceuticals and biosimilar products are excluded for now, while patented products in scope can face a baseline 100% tariff. (foleyhoag.com) The timing is staggered, which gives companies a short runway but not much certainty. Covington says tariffs start on July 31, 2026 for certain large drugmakers listed in Annex III and on September 29, 2026 for other companies. (cov.com) The administration is also using the tariff as leverage to move factories. Companies with approved onshoring plans can qualify for a reduced 20% rate until April 2, 2030, with monitoring and reporting tied to those plans. (cov.com) So the practical change is bigger than “more tariffs.” A car part, a transformer, a copper-heavy machine, or a branded medicine can now be pulled into the same national-security framework, which pushes trade policy deeper into factory supply chains and healthcare procurement at the same time. (bis.gov)