CHASKA, MN (June 19, 2018) — The Trump administration’s tariffs on Chinese imports of the medical device industry will have less of an impact on the industry. The tariffs will now cover roughly $836 million in medical devices and diagnostic products, according to the Advanced Medical Technology Association. The trade group said the initial tariff proposal would have affected $2.8 billion worth of medical-technology imports from China. The list includes sterilizers, electrocardiographs, MRIs, sonograms, X-ray machines and optical, surgical and anesthetic instruments.

In May, several members of Congress, including Congressmen Erik Paulsen (MN) and Scott Peters (CA) signed a letter to the U.S. Trade Representative arguing that including medical technology products on the list would hurt U.S. manufacturing. Most of the imports are inputs for products made “right here in America,” they wrote, so the tariffs “potentially increase health care costs, which would limit patient access to life-saving technology.”

SOURCE: Politico, June 18, 2018

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MedSource Labs Voices Concern of Imposing Tariffs of Chinese Imports

CHASKA, MN (May 3, 2018) — MedSource urged the US trade representative (USTR) to use discretion to address the U.S. relationship with China. In its public comment letter, the company noted that the medical technology industry — an American success story — is responsible for nearly two million high-paying U.S. jobs and 9,800 manufacturing facilities, across the 50 states. Our industry is the clear world leader and is one of the few manufacturing industries that has consistently run a U.S. trade surplus, with exports of almost $51 billion in 2016, and imports approaching $50.3 billion.

This trade policy could have the unintended consequence of being disruptive and adversely impacting the medical technology industry across the U.S., which would result in a surge of healthcare costs that would impact patients.

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