General

According to Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post on July 2, the World Trade Organization (WTO) report shows that China is the largest exporter of key medical supplies in the fight against the new crown in 2020, with an export value of 105 billion U.S. dollars (approximately RMB 679.6 billion) , Which is almost three times that of 2019. The United States is the largest importer of similar products.

In addition, China is the largest seller in the United States, and key medical supplies made in China account for 40.2% of the U.S. market.

According to the definition of the WTO, masks, gloves, disinfectants, ventilators, medical disinfection and sterilization equipment, pulse oximeters, etc., are all key medical supplies that can save the health and lives of COVID-19 patients. Looking back on 2020, China took decisive measures to control the early spread of the virus, and quickly recovered when the world was deeply caught in the epidemic and the economy suffered a severe setback, demonstrating strong production capacity and responsibility as a major country.

On January 26, a fully automatic mask production machine in a mask production workshop in Zhejiang Province was running continuously, and workers were stepping up domestic and foreign orders. (Source: Surging Image)

According to this WTO report, "Trade in Medical Goods in the Context of Tackling Covid-19: Developments in 2020" (Trade in Medical Goods in the Context of Tackling Covid-19: Developments in 2020), in the context of the global epidemic of COVID-19, In 2020, the global trade in medical supplies reached US$2.3 trillion (approximately RMB 14.8 trillion), an increase of 16% over 2019. In contrast, the total value of global merchandise trade shrank by 7.6% last year.

In 2020, the proportion of medical supplies in the total value of global merchandise trade will increase to 6.6% from 5.3% in the previous year. The trade volume of key medical supplies to fight the epidemic has increased by 31%.

According to the report, “China, the United States, and Germany are the world’s top three commodity trading nations, as well as trading nations of key products in the fight against the epidemic. These three economies accounted for 31% of the world’s total merchandise trade last year, but in key medical supplies The share of trade reached 41%.” In addition, the report pointed out that the world’s top 10 economies supply 72% of key medical supplies, although the 5th to 10th positions are relatively small.

“In 2020, China’s exports of key medical supplies reached 105 billion U.S. dollars (approximately RMB 679.6 billion), which is almost three times that of 2019. The share of these products in the world market has also more than doubled from 2019. 12.6% of the total increase to approximately 26.7% in 2020."

"The surge in exports has made China the world's largest exporter in 2020," the report pointed out. By the way, another country with a significant increase in exports is Malaysia, which is 52% higher than last year.

As in 2019, the United States is still the largest importer of key medical supplies for the new crown, followed by Germany and China. The United States imported 78 billion US dollars worth of key medical supplies from abroad, accounting for one fifth of the world's total. China is the largest seller in the United States, followed by Mexico and Germany.

"The bilateral trade pattern of the top three economies in the first half of 2020 will remain until the end of the year." This WTO report is updated every six months. The last update was on December 22, 2020. The latest report shows that “the United States and Germany are the largest importers of key medical supplies, and most of their imported products come from China, the world’s largest supplier. China has a 40.2% share in the US market and more than a quarter of the German market. (26.5%)."

The report shows that from January to May 2020, 70,802 new companies were newly registered in China to produce or engage in the trade of masks, an increase of 1256% over 2019.

In 2020, Chinese factories that once had nothing to do with masks, such as companies that manufacture golf balls, e-cigarettes, and auto parts, are also rapidly transforming to produce masks, alleviating the problem of insufficient global supply.

By the way, "Nihon Keizai Shimbun" announced on February 24 this year the "New Product Sales Ranking List for 2020". The sales champion of the mask category is the flat mask produced by the Chinese car company BYD (BYD).

On January 14, Li Kuiwen, Director of the Statistics and Analysis Department of the General Administration of Customs, revealed at a press conference that from March to the end of 2020, customs across the country have inspected and released major epidemic prevention and control materials worth 438.5 billion yuan, of which 224.2 billion were exported from masks. Only, worth 340 billion yuan, is equivalent to providing nearly 40 masks for everyone in the world outside of China, including 65 billion medical masks, accounting for 30% of the export volume of masks. It also exported 2.31 billion pieces of protective clothing, including 773 million pieces of medical protective clothing; 289 million pairs of goggles and 2.92 billion pairs of surgical gloves. These products provide a guarantee for medical personnel and other epidemic prevention and control personnel to do a good job in self-protection.

Li Kuiwen introduced that in terms of medical equipment, 271,000 ventilators were exported, including 212,000 non-invasive ventilators, 663,000 patient monitors, and 119 million infrared thermometers. In addition, 1.08 billion copies of new coronavirus detection kits were exported, which provided support for the new coronavirus detection work.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin revealed at a regular press conference on March 5 that from March 1, 2020 to February 28, 2021, China exported about 43.85 billion masks and about 1.19 billion pairs of surgical gloves to the United States. Approximately 950 million sets were served, 54.03 million pairs of goggles, and 17,585 ventilators. China is willing to continue to work together with other countries in the world, including the United States, to support the WTO's further role, promote the in-depth development of international anti-epidemic cooperation, and strive to overcome the epidemic at an early date.