The "intellectual property laws" you're describing are, specifically, the trade barriers. Unless you're comparing to countries which don't honor US drug patents

The "intellectual property laws" you're describing are, specifically, the trade barriers. Unless you're comparing to countries which don't honor US drug patents at all, which is a valid argument but a pretty radical one. > Why would we waste the money importing them when we can just change our intellectual property laws to match their prices. You're missing the point. Nobody would import anything. The price differences on either side of the border only exist because of the artificial barrier to trade. Allowing drug imports from other countries establishes an upper bound on how much the manufacturers can charge for those same drugs in the US.