US excludes Chinese medical gear from tariffs as coronavirus spreads

The US Trade Representative’s office in recent days granted exclusions from import tariffs for dozens of medical products imported from China, including face masks, hand sanitizing wipes and examination gloves, filings with the agency showed on Friday. By recent data, the number of infection cases in the United States has exceeded 200 people.

Report informs, citing Reuters, that many of the exclusion requests for medical products appear to have been expedited amid the rapidly spreading coronavirus outbreak, with approvals granted just over one month past a January 31 application deadline.

Requests to exclude other products from President Donald Trump’s Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods have taken months. Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) requests for exclusions on products from AirPod headphones to the HomePod smart speaker filed on October 31 are still pending.

Medline International Inc has already received exclusions on 30 products ranging from surgical gowns to face masks and medicine cups, most of which the company applied for at the end of January. A number of the exclusions were granted on Thursday, USTR documents showed.

The products were included in the fourth round of tariffs on Chinese goods imposed by Trump on September 1, 2019, amid heated US-China trade negotiations.