[A]ny move to curtail pharmaceutical imports could raise drug prices, not bring them down, experts warned. That’s because many of the cheaper drugs in the United States come from abroad …

Mr. Trump “is somewhat looking in the wrong place if he’s trying to get imports down,” said Chris Rogers, a trade analyst at Panjiva, a trade data consulting firm in New York.

The companies that are the biggest exporters of generic medicines to the United States take the same position. “Although we have been expanding our exports to the U.S., we are not raising costs as much, which helps the Americans to be able to afford the same medicines at a cheaper rate,” said Snehashish Sen, the manager of costing at Cipla Ltd., one of the largest Indian manufacturers of generic drugs. “I do not see how we are hurting the sector. In fact, by making medicines more affordable, we are helping Americans.”

In a quick analysis of trade data for four common families of pharmaceuticals, Panjiva found that imports of statins, anticonvulsants and insulins had doubled, while imports of proton-pump inhibitors had risen sixfold over the past five years. The imports consisted heavily of generic drugs, and three-fifths of them came from India, although Eastern Europe has become an increasingly important supplier as Israeli and Swiss companies set up factories there.