Economy. Customs duties: AstraZeneca to invest 50 billion euros in the United States

British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has announced plans to invest $50 billion in drug manufacturing and research and development by 2030 in the United States, where Donald Trump 's tariffs on the sector are looming.

This investment "reinforces our confidence in American innovation in biopharmaceutical products and our commitment to the millions of patients who need our medicines in America and around the world," AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot said in a statement released Monday night.

A 200% surcharge is being considered

In the name of rebalancing trade relations in favor of the United States, Donald Trump imposed a minimum 10% surcharge on imports in April. While medicines were initially exempt, the American president has since said he is considering taxing them, even considering a 200% surcharge.

"For decades, Americans have relied on foreign supplies of essential pharmaceutical products. President Trump and our country's new tariff policies aim to address this structural weakness," said U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, quoted in the AstraZeneca statement, welcoming the investment decision.

Part of European production in the United States

The announced investments include a new plant in Virginia, which will be "AstraZeneca's largest global investment in drug manufacturing," the group said in its press release.

AstraZeneca had already announced in April that it had begun transferring part of its European production to the United States, in the face of Donald Trump's threat of customs duties on the sector.

Other major pharmaceutical groups, which had been exempt from customs duties for 30 years, have in recent months begun a movement of investment and relocation of production to the United States, the world's largest pharmaceutical market, at a cost of tens of billions of dollars.