Office of the U.S. Trade Representative: Extension of Tariffs on Nearly 100 Chinese Medical Supplies

The Biden administration will extend tariff exemptions for about 99 medical products from China until Sept. 30 of this year to help fight the New Crown (Chinese Communist virus) Epidemic, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced in a federal government briefing on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

It is reported that the exempted list includes products such as surgical masks, gloves, sphygmomanometer cartridge cuffs and X-ray testing tables. Previously, the U.S. Trump administration under “Section 301”, the tariff exemptions for Chinese-made medical supplies will expire on March 31.

The briefing, signed by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative’s General Counsel Greta Peisch, said that in light of the relentless efforts to combat COVID-19, the U.S. Trade Representative does not believe it is appropriate to let the exemptions for certain products expire.

At the height of the U.S.-China trade war, Trump imposed a fourth round of tariffs on Chinese goods on Sept. 1, 2019, most of which have been included in the aforementioned products, the report said. They were hit by the initial U.S. tariff rate of 15 percent, which was later reduced to 7.5 percent under the “Phase I Trade Agreement” reached between the U.S. and China in February last year.