The 100% tariff on branded pharmaceuticals that will go into effect on Oct. 1 sounds dramatic. Especially at a time when middle-class complaints about drug prices are a salient political issue and Trump is promising to bring them down.

But the new tariff contains a big carveout for any firm with US manufacturing facilities and plans to add more. Which appears to include most if not all major global pharma companies.

Moreover, the tariff looks like it won’t apply to medicines imported from the European Union, where negotiated deals mean at most a 15% duty will apply.

Those exclusions are economically important. Already more than $1 trillion in US imports — or a third by value of all goods coming into the US each year — are excluded from his signature tariffs.