Medical gloves, ibuprofen, health facility bedsheets, wipes and soaps are some of the items that have been removed from a list of products imported from China that will be subject to a tariff effective Sept. 24.
The Health Industry Distributors Association sent 95 letters to the U.S. Trade Representative with requests that healthcare products be excluded from the agency’s proposed list. One of those letters, dated Sept. 6, was from HIDA, the National Center for Assisted Living and the American Health Care Association. The three groups recommended that more than 200 products or product components be removed from tariff consideration.
“The list of proposed products include[s] many healthcare products that are critical to protecting healthcare workers and their patients,” the organizations wrote, adding that their removal was important to prevent shortages of items needed during emergencies, increased consumer costs and limits on access.
The USTR proposed this round of items in July. The agency previously had removed items from a list issued in April and finalized in June.
This time, the USTR removed from its list 12 of the items mentioned in the letters from HIDA. The list, representing $200 billion in imported goods, was finalized Tuesday evening.
Items that remain on the list will be subject to a 10% tariff, which will begin Sept. 24 and will increase to 25% on Jan. 1. The final list of items that will be taxed contains 5,745 of the original 6,031 tariff lines that were on the proposed list, according to HIDA.
