US Removes Chinese Drug Imports From Tariff List to Keep Supplies Stable
Liao Shumin
DATE:  Aug 14 2018
/ SOURCE:  Yicai
US Removes Chinese Drug Imports From Tariff List to Keep Supplies Stable US Removes Chinese Drug Imports From Tariff List to Keep Supplies Stable

(Yicai Global) Aug. 14 -- Chinese drug maker Zhejiang Medicine has won a case in the US court to exempt all Chinese imported medicine from proposed increased tariffs in the US market. 

After a three-day hearing, the US Department of Commerce decided to erase Zhejiang Medicine, among all Chinese medicine producers, from the list of firms that make USD34 billion worth of commodities subject to additional 25 percent tax, local newspaper Hangzhou Daily reported. 

US President Donald Trump's administration has imposed tariffs that could target almost all of China's over USD500 billion worth of exports to the North American country in order to deal with the trade deficit and alleged violations of intellectual property rights. 

"It is the first time that we have fought for a tariff war about export drugs, and we will try our best to achieve a good result," Zhao Junxing, chief scientist of the firm's unit Zhejiang Novus Pharmaceuticals, who attended the court hearing, told Hangzhou Daily yesterday. "The company has slender profits, and it will be cracked down to a certain extent if a 25 percent tariff is imposed. We may lose our competitiveness."

At the court, Zhao emphasized the irreplaceable status of Zhejiang Medicine's compound artemether and vancomycin in the US market, because simply referring to an increased sales price would not have convinced the US authorities, he said.

Editor: Emmi Laine 

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Keywords:   Zhejiang Medicine,Immunity From Duties,USTR,Hearing Defense,Trade Dispute