The United States exempts import tariffs on masks and other products! 100,000 employees of the Big Three are affected...

As the epidemic in the United States becomes more serious, not only small and medium-sized enterprises, but also several major American technology giants have suffered.

Silicon Valley closes, hundreds of thousands of employees affected

According to foreign media reports, the new coronavirus has infected employees of some American technology companies and caused panic in office areas in Silicon Valley, Seattle, San Francisco and other places.

Several major tech giants in Seattle have announced that they will encourage their employees to work remotely from home. According to statistics, nearly 100,000 employees will be affected.

In addition, companies such as Twitter and Facebook have also announced that they encourage their employees to work from home to prevent infection. It can be seen that the impact of the epidemic on the economy is global, and even economic powers are not immune.

As of March 9, the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States has reached 511 (including domestic cases and evacuated cases), and the death toll has increased to 21.

The director of the US Institute of Infectious Diseases said that in order to curb the spread of the epidemic, it may be necessary to close parts of the United States. It seems that the United States is likely to suddenly announce a lockdown like Italy.

As the epidemic worsens, medical protective materials such as masks, which are essential during the epidemic prevention period, may become more scarce.......

The United States "compromises" to exempt import tariffs on masks and other products

On March 5, local time, the website of the Office of the United States Trade Representative was updated to exempt tariffs on more than 100 medical-related products imported from China by 27 American companies. Among them, the more than 100 exempted medical supplies include masks, disposable medical gloves, disinfectant wipes, sample collection containers, etc.

According to the US media Business Times, most of these companies are related to medical supplies, and the American Medical Device Trade Association submitted an application as early as January 31 , calling on the Office of the US Trade Representative to lower tariffs on related goods, but the government did not pay attention at the time. It was not until recently that it was approved by the US government.

Perhaps they are still indulging in the fun of playing with the "tariff stick" and blocking the global medical supply chain. After all, the trade war launched by the United States against China has been going on for a year and a half...

With this exemption policy, it seems that the Trump administration, which previously claimed that the risk of contracting the new coronavirus in the United States was "very low," has also begun to panic.

As soon as this news came out, Chinese netizens could not sit still, and many netizens expressed their opinions:

The comments of the majority of netizens showed a one-sided trend, but some rational netizens pointed out:

Indeed, the production of masks does not require any technical content, but masks cannot be produced just because you want to!

Just after the United States announced the exemption of mask tariffs, Amazon began to delete a large number of listings for virus masks and even closed stores. Among them, most of the sellers selling masks on the platform are from China.

Currently, the review of the mask category on Amazon’s US site has been closed , and the US Customs is also strictly checking the customs clearance of masks without FDA certification.

China has never banned the export of medical supplies

At this time, there were even foreign media rumors that China banned the export of masks! The Ministry of Commerce immediately issued a statement:

Recently, at a regular press conference held by my country's Ministry of Commerce, a foreign media reporter asked whether China would provide masks, protective clothing and other supplies to European and American countries. In response, the Ministry of Commerce responded as follows:

Although many countries have been unable to withstand the pressure since the outbreak of the global epidemic, for example, South Korea, Russia and Germany recently announced a ban on the export of protective materials such as masks.

However, even during the most severe period of the epidemic, China did not take the approach of banning the export of medical supplies for so-called "self-protection", demonstrating the responsibility of a major country!

The global epidemic will continue until at least June

Recently, Academician Zhong Nanshan said that the global epidemic is estimated to continue until at least June. He also pointed out that the focus of the prevention and control of the new coronavirus will shift from export to import in the future. Guangdong has a lot of international exchanges, so it is necessary to strengthen border inspection and border testing measures.

I want to say that the measures taken by the Chinese people to combat COVID-19 have achieved great results. I hope that some countries will learn more from our country's control measures!