CSL survives a brutal sell-off but dips on US tariff response as investors eye pharma risk

CSL Ltd (ASX:CSL) has seen shares fall nearly half a percent in afternoon trades on Thursday as the company responds to Trump’s US tariffs.

For now, that decline is subdued, because of as of yet the Trump administration has not moved to impose a baseline tariff on pharmaceutical products.

But absent from the company’s update on its tariff strategy to investors on Thursday was any mention of its operations in Europe (Germany and Switzerland) to which it exports some products.

Should tariffs on pharmaceutical products kick in and be subject to the same level of controls – a baseline tariff over 20% has been placed on the EU – then those manufacturing sites will become of greater concern.

Tariffs on the EU with a view to ASX-listed companies selling products from that region into the US were the reason Cettire shares sunk on Thursday morning. Shareholders will likely be pleased, for now, CSL isn’t in the luxury retail game.

But this could all change at any minute, when it comes to pharmaceutical tariffs. This has been something the White House appears quite fixated on, as well as beef and chicken exports to Australia, for some reason.

Right now there’s no reason to worry, and it’s also worth noting a lot of CSL’s blood plasma is based in the US where there are no real rules for blood donors around how often they can donate.

CSL typically sets up locations in poor and black neighbourhoods, offering small cash payouts to donors. That plasma then travels around the world through CSL’s channels, which could become of further interest to investors.

“We look forward to working with the US administration,” CSL wrote on Thursday.

CSL last traded at $254.056/sh.

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