Finally, Grandson: The Gap Is As High As 90%. The United States Has Cancelled More Than 100 Tariffs On Chinese Medical Products, Such As Masks.

With the spread of the epidemic, the demand for medical materials in the United States has suddenly increased. According to a survey conducted by the National Federation of nurses in March 5th on 6500 nurses, only 29% of nurses now say that their hospitals have developed plans to isolate suspected patients with new crown virus, and 44% of nurses have been given guidance to deal with the virus. 63% of nurses said they had the chance to use N95 masks, while only 25% of nurses had the chance to use a higher level electric air purifier.

In March 6th, the office of the United States trade representative updated the official website information, showing that 27 import and export tariffs were imposed on 100 kinds of medical products imported from China, such as masks, gloves, disinfectant wipes, surgical sheets and surgical gowns.

It is noteworthy that since Trump imposed tariffs on goods from China, it would take months to eliminate customs duties. However, since the outbreak of the epidemic in the United States, the US government has speeded up the examination and approval of the tariff exclusion requests for many medical products, and the approval time is more than one month from the deadline for submitting applications. The application of AirPods headphones submitted by Apple Corp at the end of October last year is still being processed.

In September 1st last year, the United States imposed fourth rounds of tariffs on China, covering medical supplies. The tax rate for medical supplies was originally 15%, and after China and the United States signed the first stage trade agreement, it fell to 7.5%. According to the information released by the NDRC, including ordinary masks, medical masks and medical N95 masks, the current Chinese masks can reach 110 million Nissan and 116 million daily output, thus easing the contradiction between supply and demand of respirators. Among them, the daily output of medical N95 respirators reached 1 million 960 thousand and 1 million 660 thousand respectively, effectively solving the protection needs of front-line medical staff.

Recently, US officials said the government had stored 30 million medical masks, but doctors needed at least 300 million masks and a gap of 90%. In addition, the United States has moved most of the masks manufacturing plants to China in recent years, and more than 90% of the masks come from China. Mike Burns, vice president of 3M, said the company can only produce 4 million surgical masks approved by the US Food and drug administration.

It is understood that in the application document submitted by the US office to the US trade representative office, it is said that the limited capacity of a few American manufacturers is difficult to expand quickly and expand production scale to meet domestic demand. According to the quality and safety level of product requirements, no other country or region has such capacity except China. To replace the manufacturer, it will take longer delivery time and extensive testing, certification and approval.

It says that the global production scope of medical masks is basically limited to China, and the conversion to manufacturers in the United States or third countries is neither practical nor competitive. Additional tariffs on such products will cause serious financial damage to the United States and increase the cost of health care providers and customers in the United States.

Vice president of Prestige Ameritech, the largest surgical mask factory in the United States, also believes that it is not easy for us mask manufacturers to expand their capacity in the short term. He said the construction time of the new machine was about 4 months, and the cost was as high as 1 million US dollars. When they were ready, the epidemic situation was over.

At the same time, because of the adverse effects of the epidemic and the shortage of materials, the American people began panic buying. The initial items were only limited to masks and hand sanitizers. Later, products such as disinfection products, bottled water, frozen food and toilet paper were all in tight supply.

On Amazon's website, some businesses even increase the price of disposable hand sanitizers and masks to 20 times the daily retail price. Under the line, the major drugstores in the United States have been unable to find the signs of masks.

In this regard, many retailers have begun to take measures to restrict the purchase of key products such as masks. Nearly $1 billion has been spent on expanding medical supplies and improving medical capacity in the recent US $8 billion 300 million emergency spending bill passed by the US Congress. The US Department of health and public service plans to buy 500 million N95 masks for healthcare workers in the next 18 months, and says that these masks will be part of the "national strategic inventory" in the future.