In a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, President Donald Trump suggested that the United States might impose a 200% tariff on pharmaceutical imports "very soon."

Trump said that he may impose heavy levies on pharmaceuticals in order to force drug manufacturers to make their products in the U.S.

"If they have to bring the pharmaceuticals into the country, the drugs and other things into the country, they're going to be tariffed at a very, very high rate, like 200%," Trump said.

"We're going to give people about a year, year and a half, to come in, and after that, they're going to be tariffed," he added. "We'll give them a certain period of time to get their act together." 

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNBC after the meeting that the Trump administration will announce further details at the end of the month.

"With pharmaceuticals and semiconductors, those studies are being completed at the end of the month, and so the president will then set his policies then, and I'm going to let him wait to decide how he's going to do it," he said.