The Trump administration is trying to frame this as another example of the rest of the world freeloading off the American people who are forced to pay the cost of research, development, and production in order for the rest of the world to enjoy low drug prices. Economically, that is not how prices work. But it’s a believable story because of how absurdly high drug prices are in the US, especially when compared to the rest of the world.

That threat has many worried that Trump plans to use price controls to force unwilling companies to lower their prices. And those worries are justified. Price controls are one of the best-understood economic policies, not only because the theory is straightforward but also because governments have been trying them for thousands of years with universally awful results.

The only way a company can charge high prices to us and much lower prices to people in other countries for the exact same drug is because the government prohibits Americans from buying and importing those drugs from abroad. Trump can toss out those barriers. Instead of asking drug companies to treat American consumers better, he’d effectively force them to do so by making them compete—with themselves, nonetheless.