With the U.S. now surpassing all other countries in the number of coronavirus cases and health experts estimating the peak may still be weeks away, President Donald Trump’s administration is having a harder time defending tariffs on health-related goods imported from China.
That’s especially true for products used in the U.S. response to the pandemic that are in high demand but running short on supply, such as ventilators, surgical masks and hand sanitizers.
Gojo Industries, the inventor and manufacturer of Purell-branded products, builds its hand-sanitizer and soap dispensers in the U.S., but a key input that ensures the dispensers work is made in China and subject to a 25% duty.
In a tariff-exemption request last year, Akron, Ohio-based Gojo said it’s exploring third-country sourcing but added that unilaterally moving production would require reverse engineering of a key chip that’s manufactured by a Canadian company in China. “Such action would violate their intellectual property” and Gojo “does not control the ability to move that production,” the submission reads.
The U.S. Trade Representative denied Gojo’s request earlier this month, saying the company failed to show that the duties “would cause severe economic harm to you or other U.S. interests,” according to USTR General Counsel Joseph Barloon’s letter on March 5.
Three weeks later, the USTR issued exemptions for Apple’s watches and a range of other products that have no apparent link to Covid-19.
The USTR didn’t respond when asked if the Gojo denial would be reassessed as part of a new exclusion process to identify more products needed to treat the virus or limit its outbreak.
