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Lebanon: Medicine Going Out of Stock, Smuggling Fears Mounting

Lebanon: Medicine Going Out of Stock, Smuggling Fears Mounting
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Lebanon: Medicine Going Out of Stock, Smuggling Fears Mounting

Lebanon: Medicine Going Out of Stock, Smuggling Fears Mounting

A number of Lebanese have complained of the exhaustion of certain medicines, including medications for chronic diseases. This caused panic and fear, especially in a country where the interruption or loss of any basic commodity or service such as bread, diesel, and electricity has become natural and possible at any moment.

The head of the Pharmacists Syndicate, Ghassan al-Amin said that Lebanon was not heading towards a drug crisis.

“The availability of medicines is linked to continuous subsidies,” he affirmed.

Amin explained that some drugs were sometimes unavailable for 10-15 days, because of the mechanism adopted by the Lebanese Central Bank in opening credit lines for importers.

Another reason that contributed to the recent exhaustion of drugs is because “some citizens are stocking medicine in their homes. This has “significantly increased drug consumption and contributed to its depletion from pharmacies,” according to Amin.

Smuggling is another contributor, the head of the Syndicate said, expressing his fears that this phenomenon would worsen with the deterioration of the value of the local currency against the USD in the parallel market.

Responding to fears over the rise of prices, Amin stressed that all medicines were subsidized, noting that prices would not rise but they might decrease.

The increase in prices was only seen in nutritional supplements and some products that are sold in pharmacies and are not classified as medicines, he noted.

Amin revealed that there are around 200 pharmacies that have recently closed and expected the number to reach 1,000 out of 3,000 within a year, because most pharmacy owners were unable to sustain further losses.

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Trump Exempts Mexico Goods from Tariffs for a Month, but Doesn’t Mention Canada

Construction workers are seen on the site of a new development in Long Beach, California, March 5, 2025. (AFP)
Construction workers are seen on the site of a new development in Long Beach, California, March 5, 2025. (AFP)
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Trump Exempts Mexico Goods from Tariffs for a Month, but Doesn’t Mention Canada

Construction workers are seen on the site of a new development in Long Beach, California, March 5, 2025. (AFP)
Construction workers are seen on the site of a new development in Long Beach, California, March 5, 2025. (AFP)

US President Donald Trump on Thursday said Mexico won't be required to pay tariffs on any goods that fall under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade until April 2, but made no mention of a reprieve for Canada despite his Commerce secretary saying a comparable exemption was likely.

"After speaking with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, I have agreed that Mexico will not be required to pay Tariffs on anything that falls under the USMCA Agreement," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "This Agreement is until April 2nd."

Earlier on Thursday, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the one-month reprieve on hefty tariffs on goods imported from Mexico and Canada that has been granted to automotive products is likely to be extended to all products that comply with the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade.

Lutnick told CNBC he expected Trump to announce that extension on Thursday, a day after exempting automotive goods from the 25% tariffs he slapped on imports from Canada and Mexico earlier in the week.

Trump "is going to decide this today," Lutnick said, adding "it's likely that it will cover all USMCA-compliant goods and services."

"So if you think about it this way, if you lived under Donald Trump's US-Mexico-Canada agreement, you will get a reprieve from these tariffs now. If you chose to go outside of that, you did so at your own risk, and today is when that reckoning comes," he said.

Nonetheless, Trump's social media post made no mention of a reprieve for Canada, the other party to the USMCA deal that Trump negotiated during his first term as president.

Lutnick said his "off the cuff" estimate was that more than 50% of the goods imported from the two US neighbors - also its largest two trading partners - were compliant with the USMCA deal that Trump negotiated during his first term as president.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called Lutnick's comments "promising" in remarks to reporters in Canada.

"That aligns with some of the conversations that we have been having with administration officials, but I'm going to wait for an official agreement to talk about Canadian response and look at the details of it," Trudeau said. "But it is a promising sign. But I will highlight that it means that the tariffs remain in place, and therefore our response will remain in place."

Lutnick emphasized that the reprieve would only last until April 2, when he said the administration plans to move ahead with reciprocal tariffs under which the US will impose levies that match those imposed by trading partners.

In the meantime, he said, the current hiatus is about getting fentanyl deaths down, which is the initial justification Trump used for the tariffs on Mexico and Canada and levies on Chinese goods that have now risen to 20%.

"On April 2, we're going to move with the reciprocal tariffs, and hopefully Mexico and Canada will have done a good enough job on fentanyl that this part of the conversation will be off the table, and we'll move just to the reciprocal tariff conversation," Lutnick said. "But if they haven't, this will stay on."

Indeed, Trudeau is expecting the US and Canada to remain in a trade war.

"I can confirm that we will continue to be in a trade war that was launched by the United States for the foreseeable future," he told reporters in Ottawa.