Editor:
Humboldt County is aging more rapidly than the U.S., which itself is steadily growing older. Apart from statistics, it’s obvious that there are a lot of us seniors around here. It follows then that we need a lot of medications. Most of them are imported. For instance, 80 percent of our antibiotics are imported from China. U.S. pharmaceutical companies focus on the production of drugs covered by patents — the most expensive medications. China, India and others concentrate on generics. China supplies 23.6 percent of U.S. pharmaceutical imports (by weight). China also is the overwhelming world leader in the production of “key starting materials” which are essential for all pharmaceuticals.
Trump’s tariff on goods coming from China, currently set at 145 percent, clearly is going to cause a substantial increase in the cost of pharmaceuticals in the U.S. (NCJ Daily, April 10). The administration’s tariff policy is supposed to lead to import substitution. Maybe it will. But the effects of tariffs begin immediately. Building new pharmaceutical plants, training employees, etc. would take years. Years that we would have to pay higher prices for, or do without, the medications we need.
Robert Argenbright, McKinleyville
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This article appears in Portrait of a Prairie.