The U.S. wants to get rid of its reliance on Chinese medical supplies.

TextsSpecial author Wang Rubing's U.Sattitude toward medical supplies from China is complex: in the short term, it can't live without, or even exempt, some product tariffs, and, in the medium and long term, try inglions to ChinaSince March, the U.S., which is heavily affected by the new crown, has imported heavily medical protection supplies from China and relies on China in its medical supply chainIn the medium- and long-term strategy, the United States has quietly changed its attitude towards China, trying to gradually get rid of its dependence on China in order to achieve "supply chain security"In January and February, when China's outbreak was severe, the U.Sgovernment did not tighten exports of medical suppliesIn February, U.Sexports of Chinese masks increased 16-fold from the previous average, and ventilator exports increased eightfold from January, nearly three times the level of the same period last year, consuming, in part, U.Sstocks of medical protection suppliesBy March, the outbreak had spread in the United States (more than 1.8 million people have been infected and more than 100,000 died), and demand for medical supplies in the United States has risen with the number of outbreaks, facing a huge gap, and state governments and medical institutions are beginning to try to import medical suppliesThe dependence on China in the supply chain of medical supplies has also attracted the attention of the U.Spolicy communityIn addition to the Trump-led White House, Congress has quietly adjusted its china strategy on the health care supply chainThe White House may be reinsing with MrTrump's mood, while Congress's legislative thinking is more stableThe U.S Congress must face two problems: first, that the U.S.-China trade war has exacerbated the difficulties of importing medical supplies in the epidemic, and second, from the medical supply chain, the U.S is seeking to reduce its dependence on China beyond the current shortage of epidemic-prevention supplies, extending to the U.S standing drug and raw materials for drug production Import and export data for the first quarter of 2020 showed that the number of 112 medical supplies imported from eight categories of the United States rebounded in March Among them, the increase in test kits/Instruments reflects the surge in the demand for virus detection in the wake of the outbreak Imports of masks, protective clothing and other products belonging to the medical protection materials category (The PPE category, pictured) fell by nearly 20% in February and did not fully recover by March Imports of U.S health care supplies rose smaller, mainly because of a contraction in Chinese exports China's exports of epidemic prevention materials have also been affected by the domestic outbreak at that time Analysis of China's customs export data by the Peterson Institute for International Economics noted that China's exports of protective goods contracted by 12 to 36 percent in January and February, recovering slightly in March but still below the level of the same period last year China's total supply of medical supplies to the outside world has not changed much, but the surge in U.S demand has led directly to a surge in the price of some medical supplies in March According to PIIE, China's export prices for masks rose 182 percent in March, while nearly 40 percent of medical masks were exported to the United States With France, Germany and the European Union restricting exports of protective materials in late March and early April, the U.S still imports large quantities of protective materials from China, where the outbreak has eased, in the second quarter But the increased import tariffs in the previous Sino-US trade war have limited the ability of the United States to quickly import medical protections In mid-April, the U.S International Trade Commission (U.S International Trade Commission) At the request of Congress, the International Trade Commission noted that 38 of the 112 medical supplies imported by the United States were affected by tariffs, and Richard Neal, chairman of the Congressional Ways and Means Committee, publicly called for lower tariffs to meet current demand for medical supplies From a policy point of view, last year's Sino-US trade war has had a negative impact on the current U.S response to the outbreak In June, Lara Simmons, president of Medline Industries, the US healthcare supply chain giant, told a hearing at the U.S Trade Representative's office that tariff increases could not be used to switch to other sources of supply in the near term Re-establishing alternative production chains in third-party countries other than China and the United States is time-consuming and expensive U.S standards for the purchase of medical supplies are set by the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which could take about two years to meet a range of regulatory requirements it has set Bypassing China altogether and producing in the United States may not be able to bypass the import of raw materials and components A phrase At the beginning of the year, the U.S government mobilized companies to increase the power to produce ventilators at a critical moment, but embarrassed to find that without tariff adjustment, it would be difficult to get respirator parts quickly and cheaply For now, even though the outbreak is currently in the state, the Trump administration has yet to adjust its position on tariffs and trade issues, and only in the short term of the outbreak, to take tariff exemptions for imports of medical goods such as masks In addition to addressing the shortage of short-term medical protection materials, the legislation and policy of the U.S Congress explore the gradual focus on the dependence of the medical supply chain on China According to the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress, the total value of U.S imports of drugs, medical devices and protective materials from China in 2019 will be about $20.7 billion, or 5 percent of the total value of U.S imports from China ($417.8 billion) in the same year The $20.7 billion, which accounts for less than a tenth of total U.S imports of pharmaceutical goods, appears to be low-lying But under individual products, imports from China are important to the United States: In addition to exporting medical supplies, equipment and medicines directly to the United States, China supplies pharmaceutical ingredients and accessories to downstream manufacturers around the world China is not only the second-largest importer of drugs and biologics in the U.S., but also the world's leading supplier of raw materials for painkillers, diabetes drugs and antibiotics, said Mark Abdoo, deputy director of the FDA, in a report that "reveals America's growing dependence on China in the field of biotechnology and pharmaceutical products." Problems with upstream supplies of raw materials from China could lead to stagnant U.S drug production, difficulties in importing and soaring prices The U.S FDA sent a letter in late February suggesting that a drug maker could not import raw materials from China because of the new crown outbreak, which led to the drug being added to the list of drugs in short supply As a regulator, the FDA has been in contact with 180 drug makers since the end of January, alerting them to the risks of raw material supply from China as a result of the outbreak, while U.S regulators are closely following 20 pharmaceutical raw materials or pharmaceutical products from China and 72 medical equipment production sites in China But at present, the U.S has a hard time monitoring U.S manufacturers' imports from China Because U.S companies do not have to declare the supply and inventory of pharmaceutical ingredients purchased directly from China to U.S regulators In addition, China's impact on the U.S drug market often needs to pass through third countries, such as India India is one of the world's largest producers of generics, with 40% of U.S generics imported from India, and 70% of India's pharmaceutical ingredients from China At the end of March, Mr Trump signed the largest fiscal rescue bill in U.S history, the CARE Act, a $2.2 trillion stimulus package that, in addition to giving Americans direct access to benefits, unemployment benefits, aid to specific industries and funding to support health care, pointed to the health-care supply chain: While the bill does nare do not address specific policies in the health-care supply chain, several bills in the U.S Congress that are under study and consideration seek to reduce Reliance on U.S health care resources Among the more representative provisions are that as early as 2018, the U.S Federal Emergency Management Agency has convened business, academic and government experts to discuss the fragility of the global medical supplies supply chain Margaret Brandeau, a professor at Stanford University, points out that the fragility of the U.S healthcare supply chain stems largely from long supply chains and complex logistics The inventory logic and requirements of the buyer, distributor, importer, government inventory, commercial retail, etc are not the same, and the flexibility of overseas procurement is limited Walgreens executives at the drug chain retail giant also point out that it will take about 18 months to find a new supply overseas and replace the original supply side entirely In the new crown outbreak, it is even more difficult to adjust the medical supply chain between China and the United States In the short term, the U.S can't completely de-hook up with Chinese suppliers in the medical supplies market, and a direct chain-breaking has a big impact on the U.S., and even if an alternative source is found, raw material prices will be affected by overseas supply conditions Even on the basis of overseas supply stability, there will still be supply chain links to increase inventory, to resist riskcause of the market end prices rise It can be inferred that in the short term, Chinese manufacturers of medical goods will not be immediately affected by the adjustment of U.S supply chain strategy But in the medium to long term, the global industrial chain may change after the new crown outbreak In early May, Huang Qifan, vice president of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, spoke about the re-establishment of the global industrial chain after the new crown outbreak, noting that high-value, low logistics costs of products could maintain stable trade relations in the reshaped international landscape This logic, also established in China's medical and pharmaceutical industries, is the best response to the risks of supply chains in the United States.