Worldwide
Trade in COVID-19
·
Germany, the United States and
Switzerland supply 35% of medical products; (2)
·
China, Germany and the United
States export 40% of personal protective products;
·
Imports and exports of medical
products totalled about US$ 2 trillion, including
intra-EU trade, which represented approximately 5% of total world merchandise
trade in 2019;
·
Trade of products described as
critical and in severe shortage in the COVID-19 crisis totalled
about US$ 597 billion, or 1.7% of total world trade in 2019;
·
Tariffs on some products remain
very high. For example, the average applied tariff for hand soap is 17% and
some WTO members apply tariffs as high as 65%;
·
Protective supplies used in the
fight against COVID-19 attract an average tariff of 11.5% and go as high as 27%
in some countries;
·
The WTO has contributed to the
liberalization of trade in medical products in three main ways:
o The results of tariff negotiations scheduled at the inception of
the WTO in 1995;
o Conclusion of the plurilateral sectoral
Agreement on Pharmaceutical Products (“Pharma Agreement”) in the Uruguay Round
and its four subsequent reviews;
o The Expansion of the Information Technology Agreement in 2015.
The WTO Secretariat has released a new report on trade in medical
products critical for the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The report
traces trade flows for products such as personal protective products, hospital
and laboratory supplies, medicines and medical technology while providing
information on their respective tariffs.
Trade in medical products which have now been described as
critical and in severe shortage during the COVID-19 crisis(1) totalled
about US$ 597 billion in 2019, accounting for 1.7% of total world merchandise
trade according to the report. The ten largest supplying economies accounted
for almost three-quarters of total world exports of the products while the ten
largest buyers accounted for roughly two-thirds of world imports.
Commitments made under various WTO negotiations and agreements
have helped slash import tariffs on these products and improve market access,
with the average tariff on COVID-19 medical products standing at 4.8%, lower
than the 7.6% average tariff for non-agricultural products in general. The
statistics show that 52% of 134 WTO members impose a tariff of 5% or lower on
medical products. Among them, four members do not levy any tariffs at all: Hong
Kong, China; Iceland; Macao, China; and Singapore. The report, however, also
identifies markets where tariffs remain high. Tariffs on face masks, for
example, can be as high as 55% in some countries.
1.
Those products
include: computer tomography apparatus; disinfectants/ sterilization products;
face masks; gloves; hand soap and sanitizer; patient monitors and pulse
oximeters; protective spectacles and visors; sterilizers; syringes;
thermometers; ultrasonic scanning apparatus; ventilators, oxygen mask; X-ray
equipment; other medical devices. They are frequently mentioned by countries,
international organizations and in news reports as the goods in short supply
2.
The values of imports and exports in this study are
calculated at HS 6-digit subheading level. Those subheadings could cover
products that are for non-medical use.