How Donald Trump's announced tariffs will affect the EU's science and health industry

It is still too early to know what the consequences of this announcement and the subsequent negotiations between the European Union and the United States will be; however, it is clear that we are entering a phase of global instability.

In the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sector, although our exports have grown progressively - with some companies such as Grifols clearly in the lead (close to 60% of exports) - we have a very large imbalance between imports and exports (negative balance of 1.7 billion euros). The situation in Europe is very disparate, with countries such as Germany showing a very positive trade balance, which will not make it easy to formulate a common policy for this sector.

From a broader perspective, the instability generated by the US administration, which is already severely impacting basic science, will also affect the competitiveness of the biotech and pharmaceutical industry in the US (which is already evident in the worrying news about the impact on the US drug agency).

In this chaotic context, Spain and Europe have an opportunity before them: not only must they implement urgent measures to attract the talent seeking to escape from the United States, but also strengthen the competitiveness of our companies by reducing bureaucracy and streamlining funding.