Sunday, April 19, 2020

US appeals to China to loosen export rules on coronavirus medical gear


Malaysiakini:


US appeals to China to loosen export rules on coronavirus medical gear



The United States has asked China to revise new export quality control rules for protective equipment needed in the coronavirus outbreak so they are not an obstacle to timely supplies, a spokesman for the US State Department said.

China tightened restrictions on exports of masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) a week ago, calling for shipments to be subjected to a mandatory customs inspection.

The move followed highly publicised complaints from some governments and hospitals that they received PPE from China that they considered faulty.

“We appreciate the efforts to ensure quality control. But we do not want this to serve as an obstacle for the timely export of important supplies,” a State Department spokesman said late on Thursday.

“The US Government has raised these concerns with (China). We have requested that China revise its new requirements to allow the expeditious export of vital PPE to the United States,” he said.

The United States is heavily reliant on medical supplies produced in China, a major strategic and trade rival, something that has been highlighted in the pandemic, in which the United States has been the worst-hit country.

On Friday, Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler (photo below) accused China of holding up shipments of test kits.





“Testing is core to opening our country back up. ... I’m concerned that China’s holding up test kits,” she told Fox News.

“They’re playing games with trade policy to prevent us, the United States, from getting the testing that we need.”


Separately, Democratic Senators Tom Carper and Bob Menendez and Republicans Tim Scott and Thom Tillis wrote to China’s ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai, expressing concern about the impact of the new rules.

“We respectfully ask that the Chinese government work with the US State Department and other US agencies to quickly develop a more targeted approach to its new export requirements that does not needlessly prevent quality medical products from quickly reaching the United States,” they wrote, according to a text made available to Reuters by Carper’s office.

Big challenge

The Chinese embassy in Washington said countries worldwide were “hunting for medical supplies, causing a big challenge for China in quality control and regulation of export.” It said to streamline procedures, a “green channel” had been set up for Chinese manufacturers to register their supplies.

It issued a factsheet saying China had exported more than 74 million N95 masks and more than 1.4 billion surgical and other types of masks to the United States between March 1 and April 15, along with other medical supplies. It said China had also donated more than 5 million masks and 500,000 test kits to the United States.




The embassy referred to a April 15 Associated Press report quoting the US ambassador to China, Terry Branstad, as saying he did not believe Beijing was deliberately blocking exports of medical supplies.

On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal cited US businesses and diplomatic memos as saying that China’s export restrictions had left US-bound face masks, test kits and other medical equipment stranded.

It cited suppliers and brokers as saying that large quantities were sitting in warehouses across China unable to receive necessary clearances.

On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke with China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi and stressed the “high importance” Washington attached to China’s facilitation of medical supply exports to meet critical US demand.

The US-China Business Council lobby group said this week Beijing had moved to address the issue. The council’s president, Craig Allen, told reporters on Thursday: “The Chinese government is making allowances and working with our companies to ensure that they’re able to ship out.”



- Reuters

7 comments:

  1. If the CCP chooses to play games at this moment of grave emergency, it will suffer in the long run.
    Memories in other capitals can be very long, especially where lives are at stake.

    Most China made products are perfectly able to be made elsewhere, in the medium term.

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    Replies
    1. are you accusing China of playing games in this issue?

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    2. In an CGTN interview, one of the panelists Einar Tangen had this to say : :" Some European countries had complained about the faulty supplies,especially regarding test kits and face masks. China had quickly investigated and it turned out that the companies supplying these items were not listed in the Chinese approved list for export. Should the Chinese government be responsible for private purchasers or those middlemen who chose to deal with such non-approved companies ? Moreover, further investigation revealed that the masks sold by these non approved companies were meant for non surgical use and the notice were clearly labelled on the containers ( but all written in Mandarin ); and the test kits too have instructions written only in Mandarin too and it was discovered that the health practitioners in these European countries did not follow the instructions properly, hence these test kits are found not to be faulty at all.

      China, in receiving such complaints, did the right thing to impose new export quality control rules. "

      Look at the sheer arrogance of these Yankee politicians and leaders...they need your help desperately but in the same breath, insult and fling accusations without a thought. This is the sort of entitlement and bullying attitude they couldn't restrain themselves from blasting out even in their most dire straits desperately needing other's help. To call them as pariah is too mild a description.

      Here's a feedback from a Canadian : ' My view towards China have changed after Covid19. Although it did not handle the initial situation well, it did warn the outside world. Huawei sent a massive number of masks to my province BC despite the fact that it was our federal government's extradition treaty with the US that caused the arrest of Ms Meng, the former CFO of Huawei.

      Now consider the case of the US. One of the first acts that Trump did when he came to power was to shut down the federal office charged with responding to pandemics. Later in January of this year, his own CIA warned him of the virus threat. And he did nothing. His Ministry Propaganda in Fox News constantly said it was a "hoax". And Trump did nothing from January to March. Now Trump's supporters attack any medical expert who disagrees with Trump about the virus.

      (He goes on to describe how with the mounting death numbers climbing to alarming rate, Trump is deflecting American anger towards China, by calling the virus as "Chinese virus")

      And then Trump instructed 3M not to send any masks to Canada, despite the fact that we have existing contracts with 3M.

      So China, which has not historically been a close friend of Canada, helped my country when we needed it most. But our ally of many decades - America - stabbed us in the back in a fit of stupidity and pique when we most needed a friend.

      I think Canada needs more China, and less America. At least China knows that we all live in one world. The Americans who put Trump in the Oval Office and the Republicans in constant control of the Senate seem not to recognize this fact.

      Right now, I am feeling very positive towards China, which is working very carefully, firmly and professionally to control the spread of the virus while helping out other countries like my own, without even being asked. Thank you, China."

      There is now a massive campaign to double down the demonization of China from the US government...this riveting video by Dan Cohen is a must watch :


      https://mobile.twitter.com/dancohen3000/status/1250173945292230656


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    3. This mfer has a CCP-hatred fixation permanently imprinted in his mind. Thus, every which way China does is affront & evil-intentional to him!

      When the quality issues of medical equipment & ppe surface, all guns (especially western media & politikuses) r shooting at China for her moneyed business practices & low quality products.

      They DON'T want to know that those moneyed business transactions were done via their blood-sucking agents (mostly their own 'kind').

      They DON'T want to know that many of these low quality equipments claimed r good for the Chinese (they DO save thousands of lifes).

      & yet no match to their western spurious medical standards, thus CANNOT save white lifes.

      There were cases of poor quality products. There were also cases of operators unable to read operational manuals in Mandarin/broken whatever foreign languages.

      They DON'T want to know these r unfortunate TIME that causes multitude of stresses on normal manufacturing processes that need to be productive in record short intervals - from start to finish!

      What a spoiled brat syndrome - I want them NOW, in LARGE quantity to my REQUIREMENTS!

      YES - most China made products are perfectly able to be made elsewhere.

      But, in the medium term???

      U do know NUTS about business!

      In fact China prefers to move upwards multiple levels to COMPETE in the champion league!

      BUT, no developed countries want to make these low margin, easy entry levels, manual preferred assembly products. Moreover, their BROKEN local supply chains - from A to Z, has zilch ability to let the manufacturing process running smoothly!

      Many of these western countries have conveniently forget that even toilet paper CAN be a strategic requirement as confirmed in many of their supermarket shelves! Their local suppliers CAN'T produce it fast enough bcoz the very basic material of soft pulp fibre is in short supply due to lockdowns in countries & transportation sectors.

      Thus, manufacturing them in a 3rd world country isn't a perfect solution if the supply chain is not in loop - from A to Z.

      So simple for a moneyed old f*ck who makes fortune as a middle man!

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    4. ccp playing game in all issues at all times. they test nuclear, survey ship come into msia water, ccp jet enter twn airspace, set condition on medical supply etc etc. a naive n credulous american can only eat dusk facing a heartless regime.

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    5. Nah..DUMBO..this is your 'naive n credulous american', hehehe

      https://mobile.twitter.com/dancohen3000/status/1250173945292230656


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