President Donald Trump announced a new wave of tariffs on Thursday, including a 100% levy on branded drug imports, unless a firm is building a manufacturing plant in the US.

Washington will also impose a 25% tariff on imports of all heavy-duty trucks and 50% levies on kitchen and bathroom cabinets, he said as he announced a slew of industry-focused duties on his Truth Social platform.

“The reason for this is the large scale “FLOODING” of these products into the United States by other outside Countries,” Trump wrote, citing the need to protect American manufacturers from foreign imports.

The announcements come despite calls from US businesses for the White House to not impose further tariffs.

Trump said the tariffs on heavy trucks were to protect US manufacturers from “unfair outside competition” and that the duties would help lift American companies such as Peterbilt and Mack Trucks.

These firms “will be protected from the onslaught of outside interruptions”, he wrote.

The new levies on kitchen and bathroom cabinets, as well as some other furniture, were in response to high levels of imports, which hurt local manufacturers, the president said.

He added that the US would start charging a 30% tariff on upholstered furniture from next week.

The new duties come as part of an expansion of Trump’s tariff policies, which have targeted both global trading partners and specific industries.

Trump’s sweeping new tariffs on more than 90 countries came into effect in early August, as part of his policies aimed at boosting jobs and manufacturing in the US, among other political goals.

Earlier this year, the US Chamber of Commerce urged the White House against introducing new tariffs, arguing that many parts used in truck production are sourced “overwhelmingly” from countries like Mexico, Canada, Germany, Finland and Japan.

The organisation added that these countries are “allies or close partners of the United States posing no threat to US national security.”

Mexico and Canada are among the biggest suppliers of parts for medium and heavy-duty trucks, accounting for more than half of total US imports in the sector last year, said the chamber.

It warned that it is “impractical” to expect many of these parts to be sourced domestically, resulting in higher costs for the industry.

The new tariffs favour domestic producers but are “terrible” for consumers as prices are likely to rise, said trade expert Deborah Elms from research firm Hinrich Foundation.

The levies would cover more products at higher rates than Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which were aimed at correcting trade imbalances with other countries.

These industry-specific import taxes could serve as a back-up plan to secure revenues as Trump’s sweeping duties on global trading partners are being challenged in court, said Ms Elms.

US President Donald Trump has said he will not allow Benjamin Netanyahu to annex the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Speaking ahead of the Israeli prime minister’s address to the UN General Assembly on Friday, the US president told reporters in the Oval Office: “I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank … It’s not going to happen.”

Trump, who will meet Netanyahu on Monday, also said a Gaza deal was “pretty close”.

Israel is facing increasing global pressure to end the war in Gaza and occupation of the West Bank as a wave of Western states formally recognise an independent Palestinian state. Far-right Israelis see annexation as a way to stop this prospect.

Ultranationalists in Netanyahu’s governing coalition have repeated calls for Israel to annex the West Bank, part of the Palestinian territories, outright.

The UK and Germany say they have warned Israel against annexation, while UN Secretary General António Guterres said at the UN on Monday it would be “morally, legally and politically intolerable”.

On Thursday, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he had spoken to Netanyahu as well as other Middle Eastern leaders.

“We’re getting pretty close to having a deal on Gaza, and maybe even peace,” Trump said.

Addressing the UN General Assembly via video link on Thursday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he was ready to work with world leaders to implement a peace plan for Israel and the Palestinians announced by France on Monday.

Abbas, 89, was barred by the US from travelling to New York to appear in person.

He thanked those countries which had recently recognised a Palestinian state in a wave of declarations that started with Canada, Australia, the UK and Portugal on Sunday, followed by France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, San Marino, Andorra, and Denmark.

The US is currently opposed to recognising Palestine, saying such a move is a reward for Hamas.

“Hamas will not have a role to play in governance,” Abbas said in his speech. He also called for a Palestinian state to assume “full responsibilities” for the Gaza Strip following an Israeli withdrawal and connect it with the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Trump met on Tuesday at the United Nations with the leaders of key Arab and Muslim nations who warned him of consequences if Israel moved ahead with annexation.

“I think the president of the US understands very well the risks and dangers of annexation in the West Bank,” Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan told reporters.

On Wednesday morning Israel closed the only crossing between the Israeli-occupied West Bank and neighbouring Jordan, stopping more than two million Palestinians from accessing the outside world.

The closure came days after two Israeli military personnel were shot dead near the crossing by a Jordanian gunman, who was killed at the scene.

In Gaza, more than 80 Palestinians, including women and children, were killed by Israeli fire on Wednesday, most of them in Gaza City, local hospitals said.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 65,419 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hama-run health ministry, including more than 18,000 children.

In August, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a UN-backed body, said more than half a million people across Gaza were facing “catastrophic” conditions characterised by “starvation, destitution and death”. Netanyahu has repeatedly denied starvation is taking place in Gaza.

A United Nations commission of inquiry found Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, in a report Israel’s foreign ministry categorically rejected as “distorted and false”.

Israel is under increasing pressure to end the war and occupation.

In addition to more countries recognising a Palestinian state, the European Commission has unveiled plans to restrict trade with Israel and impose sanctions on extremist ministers in its government, which – if adopted – would be the EU’s toughest response to the war in Gaza.

This week Microsoft cut off some services to a unit of Israel’s Ministry of Defence after an investigation found its technology had been used to conduct mass surveillance on people in Gaza.

But Netanyahu has called for Israel to embrace increased self-sufficiency.