Trade

Please join ITIF’s Aegis Project for Defending U.S. Technology Leadership for an expert panel discussion examining the growing trend of nontariff attacks on American technology companies and exploring ways U.S. policymakers can respond.

Please join ITIF’s Centre for Canadian Innovation and Competitiveness for a virtual panel featuring top experts as they explore whether growing external pressures might serve as a catalyst for renewed policy ambition in Canada’s innovation ecosystem.

Counterfeit drugs are flooding U.S. supply chains—fueled by third-party sellers, drop-shipping, and weak online pharmacy oversight. The fentanyl crisis highlights the danger, but the issue runs deeper. Enforcement alone isn't enough. Congress and regulators must embrace digital solutions like blockchain, RFID tagging, and tamper-proof packaging to secure drug traceability and protect public health.

The Trump administration’s call for “most favored nation” drug price controls will lead to less biopharmaceutical innovation and reduced U.S. drug industry competitiveness. However, the president’s willingness to use tariff negotiations to press other nations to pay their fair share for patented drugs is salutary.

There is a clear linkage between technology and national security, economic strength and social stability.

Chinese advanced industries may not have U.S. market access after the trade war, but they will have the rest of the world’s. American companies will be left with the scraps of the U.S. market. Scale will determine the winner.

President Trump sees tariffs as an across-the-board global price reset, wherein the market, not the government, selects the firms that succeed behind America’s tariff wall.

Instead of blanket tariffs, America should focus first on persuading other nations to pay their fair share, and then on supporting public-private investments in novel technologies that will make U.S. pharmaceutical producers more innovative and cost-competitive.

The administration should focus foremost on addressing China’s mercantilist policies and resist the urge to impose blanket tariffs on U.S. imports of semiconductors, semiconductor inputs, or products with embedded semiconductors.

While the U.S. government is right to prevent U.S. companies from selling advanced AI technology to the Chinese military, cutting U.S. companies off from the entire Chinese market is a cure worse than the disease. It will ultimately harm both U.S. national security and economic interests.