Whether or not an ally of the US, President Trump has moved to impose tariffs on multiple countries, including all trade partners, in an action expected to stoke a global trade war.
Some countries, including the UK, Australia, and Saudi Arabia, will face only a ‘base line’ tariff of 10%, due to go into effect on April 5.
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Other countries, including the European Union (EU) as a collective, Japan, and China are facing tariff rises of 20%, 24%, and 54% (including earlier tariffs) respectively, which will go into effect 9 April.
The Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed) highlighted that it supports “any and every” policy that allows the US to maintain its position of global primacy in “every aspect of medical innovation imaginable”, adding that it “fully supports” the President’s goal of moving as much manufacturing into the US as possible.
“However, we are disappointed in the news of the administration’s intent to levy broad tariffs that will negatively impact American medical technology and innovation,” AdvaMed president and CEO Scott Whitaker said in a statement.
“If implemented as proposed, broad-based tariffs of this nature would act much as an excise tax. It will have a negative impact on innovation, cost jobs, and increase overall costs to the health care system.
“Historically, industries with a meaningful humanitarian mission have been exempted from broad tariffs, and as a result we have seen no to low tariffs on medtech from all key trading partners.”
Whitaker went on to emphasise that AdvaMed intends to continue working with the White House to help it to understand the important role the medtech industry plays in the US’s health care ecosystem, and the overall importance of the industry towards continued US economic growth.
Whitaker concluded: “The medtech industry should be exempted from these tariffs.”
The EU-UK response
AdvaMed’s EU counterpart, MedTech Europe, shared that it had responded to a public stakeholder consultation enacted by the EU last month on a package of new countermeasures on US exports intended to protect the bloc’s interests.
In response to the consultation, MedTech Europe highlighted “high concerns” to see several codes for finished medical devices, along with nearly a hundred codes related to inputs for medical technologies, such as raw materials, spare parts, and components, included in the list of products subject to potential EU countermeasures.
In a step comparable to AdvaMed’s response, the association reiterated calls for the European Commission (EC) to exempt medical devices and in vitro diagnostic medical devices and their essential inputs from any retaliatory tariffs.
“The inclusion of such products would negatively impact the costs, access, and quality of care across Europe as well as the competitiveness and attractiveness of the European medical technology industry,” MedTech Europe said in a statement.
While the UK government has drawn up an “indicative list” of US products which the UK could tariff in response, it has stopped short of electing to respond with any immediate countermeasures at this time.
Agreeing with this approach, the Association of British HealthTech Industries (ABHI) wrote in a statement: “We believe it is not in the interests of our members or the patients we serve to take any action that may impact on the availability of HealthTech for NHS patients and the subsequent effect that may have on the quality and safety of care.”
