An economist in Europe and one in the U.S. say policymakers talking about the vulnerabilities of supply chains are drawing the wrong conclusions from the shortages of personal protective equipment, but while they say policy decisions should be fact-based, it's not clear that procurement professionals can influence the politicians. Simon Evenett, an international trade professor at Switzerland's University of St. Gallen, said during a Peterson Institute for International Economics program that in most medical goods and medicines, China is not the largest supplier, though it is for PPE.

While some individual companies in the medical and protective equipment sector testified that advantaging U.S. production will prevent shortages in the next pandemic, trade groups generally emphasized that stockpiling is the best solution, and that production needs to be globalized for the lowest risk. All were testifying across two days this week to the International Trade Commission, which was tasked with investigating the U.S. production and trade in goods needed for COVID-19 pandemic response, and supply chain challenges revealed in the crisis.

At the first of two Senate Finance Committee hearings on securing the medical supply chain, senators learned that Homeland Security Investigations has opened 570 cases, and, cooperating with CBP, has stopped “900 shipments of mislabeled, fraudulent, or unauthorized COVID-19 test kits, treatment kits, homeopathic remedies, purported anti-viral products, and” personal protective equipment.

The $38 million in Section 301 tariff costs iRobot incurred in 2019 inflicted a hit of three percentage points on its gross margin for the year, CEO Colin Angle said. IRobot assumes the List 3 tariff exclusion it landed in April on the robotic vacuum cleaners it sources from China will expire at the end of 2020, he said. The reinstatement of 25% tariffs on Chinese goods will result in a “similar contraction” to 2021 gross margin, he said. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer “made it quite explicit” in congressional testimony last month that any granted List 3 exemptions “would expire at the end of the year,” Angle said. Lighthizer’s testimony “is the most explicit guidance that we have been given,” he said July 22 following quarterly results.

The American Apparel and Footwear Association is asking Congress to renew the African Growth and Opportunity Act this year, five years ahead of its expiration. “Companies are poised to diversify out of China, and Africa is a logical place for many of them. The on-again, off-again nature of the program before the ten-year renewal was extremely disruptive and meant the industry was not able to take full advantage of the first 15 years of the program,” AAFA's letter said. The trade organization is also asking that the quota limit for third country fabric be increased from 3.5% to at least 4%, with a growth provision.

The struggle the U.S. is having to manage the COVID-19 pandemic is a higher priority than what's happening at the World Trade Organization, said Dennis Shea, U.S. ambassador to the WTO. He noted that the U.S. has a third of the world's reported cases of the disease, and that more Americans have died from COVID-19 than citizens in any other country.

Dockworkers' strikes, hurricanes and the trade war have all been major problems for importers and exporters at various points in the last 20 years, but the impact of COVID-19 dwarfs them all, panelists and listeners said on a webinar during the National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones virtual conference May 13.

Panelists tasked with envisioning how trade will change post-COVID-19 pandemic disagreed on what's most useful to avoid another shortage of critical supplies in an emergency, but said they expect that things will change. Nicole Bivens Collinson, a lobbyist at Sandler Travis, said clients are already planning how to reshape supply chains, after the painful experience of not receiving shipments as the pandemic hit China, then South Korea, then the rest of the world.

While auto parts, LCD panels and pharmaceuticals are most concentrated in the Chinese province where the coronavirus epidemic began, a recent Congressional Research Service report noted that quarantines are affecting port staffing, which can affect all shipments from China. “Business reopening has been uneven across sectors and locations in China. Many firms are awaiting government approvals to reopen and are facing difficulties in meeting new operating requirements, such as providing masks for employees,” the report said. Because passenger air traffic has been curtailed to and from China, there is much less space for air cargo shipments.

Half the companies surveyed by the U.S.-China Business Council say that it's too soon to tell if the tariffs in the China trade war were worth it for the gains won at the negotiating table, even as 78 percent of respondents welcome the phase one deal. Companies see the phase one deal -- which takes effect Feb. 14 -- as something that will prevent more tariff hikes. Of those who are directly affected by the commitments in phase one -- 60 percent of the companies -- the purchase promises matter most, with 30 percent saying that's the most relevant plank. Protection of intellectual property was a close second, with 27 percent of companies saying that's most important.