Drugmaker Millicent Pharma on Aug. 20 is announcing plans to begin production in Fajardo, on Puerto Rico’s eastern coast. At least seven manufacturers have either set up shop or expanded their operations in the U.S. territory since Trump took office and rolled out tariffs on foreign goods, according to government data.
“We have multiple companies choosing Puerto Rico because we are American manufacturing, we are made in the U.S.A., and that automatically liberates them from tariffs,” Governor Jenniffer Gonzalez said in an interview.
Gonzalez, a Republican, has leaned into Trump’s tariff policies, issuing executive orders aimed at luring foreign manufacturers to the island of 3.2 million. The companies opening or expanding there have committed to investing more than $220 million and creating at least 1,600 local jobs, according to her office.
“These are companies that want access to the U.S. market,” Gonzalez said.
The manufacturing bump is welcome news for an economy that is expected to barely grow this year as it recovers from hurricanes, bankruptcy and a brain drain.
Despite Puerto Rico’s reputation as a tropical getaway, manufacturing remains the island’s economic engine, representing about 43% of gross domestic product. It’s the second-largest producer and exporter of pharmaceuticals in the U.S. Tourism, in contrast, accounts for just 2% of the territory’s economy.
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