U.S. expands national‑security tariffs

The White House used a law written for national security to put new tariffs on patented drugs on April 2, 2026, and to rewrite how tariffs hit steel, aluminum, and copper four days later on April 6. What used to be a tool aimed mostly at metals is now reaching into medicine cabinets and factory purchasing lists at the same time. (whitehouse.gov) Section 232 is the part of the 1962 Trade Expansion Act that lets the president restrict imports after the Commerce Department says those imports “threaten to impair” national security. Congress’s own research service says the second Trump administration has already launched 12 of these investigations and finished five. (congress.gov) That matters because Section 232 is not the usual tariff route through Congress. The Bureau of Industry and Security says the Commerce Department can start an investigation itself, write a report within 270 days, and then the president can “adjust the imports of an article and its derivatives.” (media.bis.gov) Steel and aluminum were the original modern test case in March 2018, when President Trump first used Section 232 on those metals. Copper joined them on July 30, 2025, after a Commerce report said imports threatened domestic production tied to defense and infrastructure. (govinfo.gov) (whitehouse.gov) Copper was not a symbolic add-on. The July 2025 proclamation said copper is the second most widely used material by the Department of Defense and listed aircraft, ships, submarines, missiles, and ammunition as dependent on it. (whitehouse.gov) The April 2026 metals order changed the math in a way importers feel immediately. Trade lawyers and tax advisers say the tariff now applies to the full customs value of many covered steel, aluminum, and copper goods, instead of only the metal content inside them. (wiley.law) (kpmg.com) The new rate structure is steeper at the top and broader in practice. White House and trade summaries say some mostly metal goods now face 50% on full value, some derivative goods face 25%, and some goods made abroad from entirely U.S.-melted or U.S.-smelted metal get 10%. (whitehouse.gov) (wiley.law) At the same time, the administration removed hundreds of low-metal-content products from the tariff lists and kept others in, which means the line now runs through product classification tables instead of a simple “metal or not” rule. White House and private trade analyses say products with less than 15% metal content were carved out, while other categories were shifted into new annexes. (whitehouse.gov) (ey.com) Then came pharmaceuticals. The April 2 proclamation says about 53% of patented pharmaceutical products distributed in the United States are produced outside the country, and only 15% of patented active pharmaceutical ingredients by volume are made domestically for the U.S. market. (whitehouse.gov) The administration’s argument is that patented drugs are not just a health product but part of wartime and emergency readiness. The proclamation names cancer, rare-disease, autoimmune, and infectious-disease treatments and says a self-sufficient manufacturing base is vital for national defense and public health security. (whitehouse.gov) Put those pieces together and the shift is bigger than one tariff round. Congress’s research service says Section 232 lets the president act after a national-security finding, and the administration is now applying that frame across metals, medicine, semiconductors, trucks, aircraft, timber, and more investigations opened in 2025. (congress.gov) (media.bis.gov) For companies, the hard part is not only the tariff bill but the planning rulebook. A factory, supplier contract, or drug launch that looked commercial in 2024 can now be pulled into a national-security process run through executive proclamations, annex lists, and customs guidance with effective dates measured in days, not years. (mondaq.com)) (chrobinson.com)