The Biden administration is expected to announce new tariffs on Chinese-made medical equipment such as syringes and personal protective gear as part of its trade strategy next week, according to two sources familiar with the matter who spoke to Reuters. The White House has refused to comment on this speculation.
These anticipated measures are said to be part of a broader strategy by the Biden administration aimed at safeguarding the United States from supply shortages that arose during the COVID-19 pandemic. At that time, shortages in supply led to hospitals scrambling to find crucial medical equipment.
President Biden is set to unveil new tariffs on China as early as next week, targeting strategic industries including electric vehicles, solar panels, and steel. The extent of the tariffs on medical equipment remains unclear.
To reduce reliance on Chinese medical equipment, the U.S. government announced a series of new actions in November 2023 to strengthen American supply chains, including invoking a measure from the Cold War era to increase investment in the manufacturing of U.S. drugs and medical supplies.
In addition to protecting the supply chain, concerns about the quality of Chinese medical equipment have also raised alarms in the U.S. On March 19th, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a statement indicating that quality issues with Chinese-made plastic syringes sold in the U.S. were “more widespread” than previously known.
The statement advised all U.S. plastic syringe suppliers, healthcare facilities, and consumers to “immediately stop using unauthorized plastic syringes from Jiangsu Shenli Medical Production Co. Ltd.”
The FDA is also assessing the quality issues and performance test failures of plastic syringes produced by Jiangsu Caina Medical Co. Ltd. The performance tests have shown that several models of plastic syringes produced by Jiangsu Caina exhibited “unexpected and unexplained failures.” The evaluation by the FDA is still ongoing, and final test results have not yet been released.