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WASHINGTON—The Trump administration has granted exclusions from import tariffs for more than 100 medical items imported from China, including face masks, examination gloves and sanitizing wipes.
The exclusions were approved for 27 companies, all of which filed their requests before a Jan. 31 deadline. The coronavirus outbreak was still largely centered in China at that time, but U.S. companies were already girding for a pandemic.
“There is currently a critical shortage of face masks that will likely have ramifications across the globe,” Medline Industries Inc. of Northfield, Ill. said in its filing for a tariff exclusion. “Medline is adding capacity as quickly as possible but in order to ensure public safety and health we must continue to maximize capacity at all available suppliers, both those inside and outside of China.”
Medline received 30 of the 103 exclusions granted. Its products receiving tariff waivers included face masks, surgical drapes, specimen containers and surgical gowns.
