Finish the Section 232 investigation.

Where it stands

On September 2, 2025, the Commerce Department opened a Section 232 national-security investigation into personal protective equipment, medical consumables and medical equipment. Its own notice names surgical masks, N95 respirators, gloves and gowns. Public comments closed in October 2025. As of this writing there has been no determination.

Why it matters

Section 232 exists for exactly this case: the national-security risk and the market outcome point in opposite directions. Left to price alone, the market keeps finished gloves in Malaysia and the raw materials in China.

A better design

• Not a blanket tariff. The pharmaceutical action showed a better model: a high headline rate that drops for companies that commit to build here, and drops further for those that also commit on price.
• Pair it with offtake. A tariff without a buyer is a tax on hospitals. A tariff with multi-year purchase commitments is an industrial policy.
• Plan for the real objection. Hospitals run on thin margins. Phase-ins and targeted exemptions for genuine shortages keep care whole while capacity comes online.

The ask

Finish the report, and make the result a contract with a tariff as its enforcement mechanism.

Dan Izhaky · October 2026 · All briefs · Next: Tariffs that close the market.