Exemption from tariffs on Chinese masks! Just now, the United States officially announced...

So far, there have been cases of COVID-19 in 25 states in the United States! At the same time, the U.S. has only 35 million masks in stock, with a gap of 99%.

In order to alleviate the tense supply and demand problem of masks in the United States, the US government has introduced an important policy - exempting Chinese masks and other medical products from tariffs!

According to a document released by the Office of the United States Trade Representative on March 6, the United States has exempted tariffs on more than 100 medical-related products imported from China from 27 U.S. companies. The benefited products include masks, disinfectant wipes and gloves.

These companies submitted their applications as early as January 31, but were not approved by the US government until March 5. The exemption applications of some companies are still under review.

Among them, Medline International Inc, a well-known American medical company, was exempted from tariffs on 30 types of goods, including surgical gowns, masks, medicine cups, etc.

However, in fact, the US government is reluctant to exempt Chinese masks from tariffs! The US Medical Device Trade Association (AdvaMed) wrote a letter on January 31, calling on the Office of the US Trade Representative to reduce tariffs on related goods, "which is crucial to helping China and the United States control the epidemic." But the US government ignored it at the time.

However, waving the "tariff stick" in the face of the epidemic and blocking the global supply chain of medical supplies is obviously a "stupid" strategy. The US government is gradually making changes!

Different from the attitude of the US government, the attitude of US e-commerce platforms is different! Recently, eBay announced that it would ban the sale of masks, hand sanitizers and other COVID-19 related supplies on its platform!

eBay published a post on its community site on Thursday announcing that it would ban the sale of masks, including N95/N100 and surgical masks; hand sanitizers and gels; and disinfecting wipes.

In addition, existing items will be deleted, and eBay will also begin removing items that reference COVID-19, coronavirus, or 2019nCoV in the description or title. Only related books will be spared!

Why did eBay take such a big action overnight? eBay said: "These items may violate applicable US laws or regulations, eBay policies, and exhibit unfair pricing behavior to our buyers!"

Price gouging was a problem on eBay before the ban took effect, with one seller offering five 2.5-ounce bottles of Germ-X ​​hand sanitizer for $500.

What's worse, a 3M mask that costs only a few dollars is sold at a price of 40-1000 US dollars (about 280.9-7021.4 RMB)!

Although masks are an extremely necessary product, such a price increase is really too much! In addition to preventing price gouging, eBay also hopes to remove products that have unfounded medical claims, because this violates US government orders and even endangers human health!

In any case, it is conceivable that in the United States, where the mask shortage is as high as 99%, without such an important sales channel as eBay, it will be more difficult for the American people to buy masks!

In addition to eBay, Amazon also severely punishes illegal products based on the new coronavirus on its platform!

Amazon said it has banned the sale of more than 1 million products in recent weeks that claimed to cure or protect against the coronavirus.

And many sellers have been banned due to fraud and high prices!

In addition, a seller revealed that Amazon has withdrawn all advertisements related to the mask category. Any advertisements containing the word "mask" will be blocked!

There is also news that Amazon has stopped reviewing the mask category in the US site! However, this news has not been officially confirmed, so it is not known whether it is true or false!

In fact, the United States is also a complex of contradictions! On the one hand, the government exempts mask tariffs, and on the other hand, e-commerce platforms prohibit and restrict the sale of masks... At this stage, selling through platforms is no longer the best choice! Perhaps the best way is to use independent sites, B2B or personal cross-sea docking!