Commentator: Shin Chung-chul, Director of Health Center, Ji-Pu Industrial Trend Research Institute

The U.S. once again wielded the tariff stick, 4/2 Trump signed the "reciprocal tariffs" executive order, levied "universal" tariffs 10% on more than 180 countries around the world, based on the impact of the countries' non-tariff barriers and currency manipulation to develop a comprehensive tariff rate, 57 countries and regions with larger U.S. trade deficits in the base of the 10%, plus a higher reciprocal tariffs, as shown in Figure 1, Taiwan 32%, Switzerland 31%, India 26%, Korea 25%, Japan 24%, EU 20%, and China tariffs are as high as 54% (Note: Previous tariffs 20% + reciprocal tariffs of 34%), in addition to Southeast Asia, except for Singapore 10% and Philippines 18%, the rest of the countries have been reduced to tariff 49%. Southeast Asia, in addition to Singapore 10% and the Philippines 18%, the rest of the countries have also been reduced to 49% ~ 24% tariffs of the hardest-hit areas.

In terms of product categories, steel, aluminum, copper, semiconductors, and pharmaceuticals have been spared the impact of the tariff for the time being. Although pharmaceuticals (finished products) and APIs listed on the front of the Executive Order have been temporarily exempted from the tariff, there are still uncertainties in the future because Trump has forecasted that he will not rule out the imposition of the 25% tariff on pharmaceuticals in the past, and the uncertainty of his policy has set a high probability of the U.S. imposing a specific tariff on pharmaceuticals in the future, which has also triggered the global biotech-pharmaceutical industry to pay high attention to Trump's future policy direction.