While pointing out that the schedule for charges on semiconductors was “similar” to that of medicines, US President Donald Trump has stated that his administration may begin enforcing tariffs on pharmaceutical imports at the end of the month.

According to Yonhap news agency, Trump made the comments, implying that his government will gradually reduce pharmaceutical tariffs to give businesses time to build their production facilities in the US.

After returning from a public engagement in Pittsburgh, he told reporters, “Probably at the end of the month and we are going to start off with a low tariff and give pharmaceutical companies a year or so to build, and then we’re going to make it a very high tariff.”

Without going into further detail, Trump also said that his schedule for enacting tariffs on semiconductors was “similar” and that levying taxes on chips was “less complicated.”

In a hint that Trump’s tariff announcements on pharmaceutical and semiconductor imports may be imminent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick stated last week that the Trump administration will conclude its national security investigations into these imports by the end of this month.

Lutnick was speaking of the inquiries he had started in April in accordance with Trade Expansion Act of 1962 Section 232. The legislation gives the president the power to modify imports into the United States if he thinks they pose a threat to national security.

Trump stated during a Cabinet meeting earlier this month that he intended to slap a 50% tariff on copper in the upcoming weeks and that, after giving companies a year to move their manufacturing back to the United States, he expected pharmaceutical duties to rise to 200 percent.

Asserting that a surge of foreign imports was endangering national security, Trump has already started probes into pharmaceuticals under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962.