China’s share of personal protective equipment (PPE) imports rose from about 60% in January to more than 80%. China is expanding exports to meet the rapidly increasing global demand. China accounts for 96% of Japan’s medical mask imports. Although Japan, the United States and Europe are concerned that life-related medical supplies are overly dependent on China, and strive to achieve diversification of domestic production and procurement, the threshold is still high.

United Nations trade statistics show that as of May, when recent data is available, the world trade volume of the four main items (masks, medical covers, protective clothing, and protective glasses) used by medical workers to prevent COVID-19 has increased sharply.

 

Due to the expansion of the coronavirus epidemic, the demand for personal protective equipment is high. The dependence of global imports on China increased from 59% (average) in January to 83% in May.

 

The reason for the increased dependence on China is that China has expanded exports to meet the surge in global demand. Major countries rely on China to ensure adequate personal protective equipment. While increasing imports from China, it also controls foreign exports. The US government continued to implement export restrictions on personal protective equipment such as medical masks from April, and at the same time exempted the additional tariffs imposed on personal protective equipment made in China, which promoted imports.