Trump's Trade Policy Harming US Fight Against COVID-19

In 2018, health experts warned Trump: putting tariffs on medical products would hurt US preparedness for pandemics. He did it anyway.  

Now, Trump's tariffs are contributing to shortages at the time of a national health crisis.

An alarming unintended consequence of Trump’s misguided trade war with China has suddenly threatened to cripple the US fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The administration’s tariffs on Chinese medical products may contribute to shortages and higher costs of vital equipment at a time of nationwide health crisis.

In the last two years, Trump’s policy has forced China to divert the sales of these products—including protective gear for doctors and nurses and high-tech equipment to monitor patients—from the United States to other markets, and now the US medical establishment faces looming trouble importing these necessities from other countries, which may be hoarding them to meet their own health crises.

During this crisis, the United States needs to be more open and more cooperative on trade.  To protect human health, this is a critical moment for global cooperation.

This calamity was hardly unforeseen.

In August 2018, the Trump administration’s US Trade Representative convened a hearing to ask the public whether it should impose tariffs on such products. Matt Rowan, president of the Health Industry Distributors Association (HIDA), warned against the impact that Trump’s tariffs would have on the American health sector. “These products are essential to protecting healthcare providers and their patients every single day,” he said with shocking prescience. “The healthcare products on the proposed list are used widely throughout healthcare settings and are a critical component of our nation's response to public health emergencies.”

His warnings, echoed by many others over the next year, went unheeded.

Trump’s reversal earlier in March served as an implicit indictment of his administration’s own policy.

Despite warnings from health experts, Trump’s began imposing 25 percent tariffs on Chinese medical equipment in July 2018. The tariffs resulted in a sharp decline in US imports from China of many of these critical medical products over the past few years.

But a potential for crisis is not limited to the unnecessary costs and health equipment bottlenecks that Trump’s trade war with China has created. 

His continued mistreatment of many trading partners, imposition of tariffs and threats of tariffs on their exports, may make it difficult now to get new sources of supplies.

Even allies are now lashing out and restricting the flow of medical equipment outside of their borders, including to the United States.

READ THE EXTENSIVE REPORT AT THE LINK BELOW.

 

Source: https://www.piie.com/blogs/trade-and-investment-policy-watch/trumps-trade-policy-hampering-us-fight-against-covid-19

Date: 
Tuesday, March 24, 2020