Trump’s 15% tariff on medicines will harm patients, say EU drugmakers
The European pharmaceutical industry has condemned the US move to put 15% tariffs on medicines imported from the EU, calling the taxes a “blunt instrument” that would harm patients on both sides of the Atlantic,They were responding to a White House text of the deal that inferred the 15% baseline rate on imports from the EU would also apply to drugs if the agreement is implemented on the US side on Friday as expected,“As part of President Trump’s strategy to establish balanced trade, the European Union will pay the United States a tariff rate of 15%, including on autos and auto parts, pharmaceuticals, and semiconductors,” the text said,The European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries (EFPIA) said: “Tariffs on medicines are a blunt instrument that will disrupt supply chains, impact on investment in research and development, and ultimately harm patient access to medicines on both sides of the Atlantic,”The trade organisation represents drug companies across the bloc including Bayer in Germany, Novo Nordisk in Denmark, and US multinationals with operations in Ireland such as Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson.
The US move to impose import duties on pharma is a breach of a 1995 World Trade Organization agreement that medicines and the active ingredients in them are rated at zero tariff,An EU trade spokesperson said pharma imports from the US to the EU would remain duty free,Washington’s text also indicated that the EU had confirmed it would not introduce a tech tax,An EU spokesperson said this was not the case and the bloc retained the “sovereign right to legislate” in the digital space,Trump declared war on US pharmaceutical companies that were manufacturing medicines for US patients, and booking profits on those sales abroad.
Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotionIn March, he repeatedly took aim at Ireland’s historical low-tax policies, which helped lure US multinationals including Pfizer, Boston Scientific and Eli Lilly to its shores, claiming the country had looted US businesses,On Monday, Ireland’s prime minister, Micheál Martin, said tariffs in general were not ideal but a trade war would have been “ruinous”,The EFPIA said it strove to “ensure a fairer distribution of how global pharmaceutical innovation is financed” but there were “more effective ways” to achieve this that would “help rather than hinder global advances in patient care and economic growth”,The White House text of the deal has added to existing confusion over the position of pharmaceuticals in the trade deal, given that EU officials said on Monday that pharma exports to the US would remain duty free until the US had completed its section 232 investigation into pharmaceuticals and semiconductors,The text also raises questions over standards of US foods exported to the EU.
The EU said the US’s reference to commitments to “address non-tariff barriers affecting trade in food and agricultural products including streamlining requirements for sanitary certificates for US pork and dairy products” did not amount to any lowering of its red-line rules on food standards,It is known that the European Commission has also made a commitment to the UK to streamline veterinary certification processes applying to British food exports post-Brexit,This could include a reduction in the paperwork needed to export products,
UK online safety law leads to 5m extra age checks a day for pornography sites
Five million extra online age checks a day are being carried out in the UK since the introduction of age-gating for pornography sites, according to new data.The Age Verification Providers Association (AVPA) said there had been a sharp increase in additional age checks in the UK since Friday, when age verification became mandatory for accessing pornography under the Online Safety Act.“As a result of new codes under the Online Safety Act coming into force on Friday, we have seen an additional 5m age checks on a daily basis, as UK-based internet users seek to access sites that are age-restricted,” said Iain Corby, the executive director of the AVPA.The UK has also seen a surge in popularity of virtual private networks, which obscure a user’s real location and thus allow them to access sites blocked in their own country. Four of the top five free apps on the Apple download store in the UK are VPN apps, with Proton, the most popular, reporting a 1,800% increase in downloads
People in the UK: have you been the victim of phone theft recently?
According to data compiled by an insurance firm, nearly two in every five mobile phones stolen in Europe are taken in the UK. Claims made to the American insurance company SquareTrade showed 39% of all phone thefts across the company’s 12 European markets were in Britain.The data revealed that phone theft claims in the UK had increased by 425% since June 2021 and 42% of phone thefts in the UK occurred in London.We’d like to hear from people who have been the victim of phone theft in the UK in the last six months? Has your phone been snatched out of your hands? What happened next and how easy was it to secure your data and accounts? Did you report it to the police? Has it changed your behaviour using your phone or sense of safety on the streets? Why do you think that the UK is the phone theft capital of Europe.You can tell us if you have been the victim of phone theft in the UK by filling in the form below
UK viewers: are you watching YouTube on your TV more than other channels?
YouTube has become popular to watch on TV with children and older people choosing the video platform when they first switch on their televisions.Viewers aged 55 and over watched almost twice as much YouTube than they did in 2023, with 42% of them watching on a TV. The platform is also the most popular first TV destination for generation Alpha viewers, aged four to 15.We’d like to hear from people who watch YouTube on their TV more than other channels. When and why did your watching habits change and how does it differ to what you grew up with? What are your favourite YouTube shows and why?You can tell us why you watch YouTube more than other broadcast channels on your TV by filling in the form below
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 review: great-looking and fun, but iterative Android
Samsung’s seventh-generation Flip phone trims the fat, gains a bigger cover screen on the outside and a larger folding display on the inside, but fundamentally doesn’t reinvent the wheel.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.The Galaxy Z Flip 7 joins the book-style Z Fold 7 as Samsung’s two flagship folding phones for 2025
YouTube most popular first TV destination for children, Ofcom finds
Children are now heading to YouTube from the moment they turn on the television, in the latest sign of the video platform’s migration from the laptop to the living room.YouTube is the most popular first TV destination for generation Alpha, according to a comprehensive survey of the UK’s viewing habits by Ofcom, the communications regulator.One in five young TV viewers aged from four to 15 turned straight to the platform last year. The survey showed Netflix close behind. While BBC One was in the top five first destinations, children were just as likely to choose BBC iPlayer
The trillion-dollar AI arms race is here
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. Johana Bhuiyan and Dara Kerr here, filling in for Blake Montgomery, who’s enjoying the beach but likely getting sunburned.Tech companies are fighting to claim the title of having the world’s most advanced AI. The goal is to supercharge their bottom line and keep investors and Wall Street happy. But developing the world’s most advanced AI means spending billions on data centers and other physical infrastructure to house and power the supercomputers needed for AI
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