WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Biden administration is extending tariff exclusions on about 99 classes of medical merchandise from China till September 30, 2021 to assist battle COVID-19, the U.S. Commerce Consultant’s workplace stated in a Federal Register discover right here Wednesday.

The exclusion listing covers gadgets starting from masks and gloves to blood strain cuff sleeves and x-ray tables. The extension of a earlier tariff exclusion on medical merchandise beneath the Trump administration’s “Part 301” tariffs was scheduled to run out on March 31.

“In gentle of continued efforts to fight COVID-19, the U.S. Commerce Consultant has decided that it’s inappropriate to permit exclusions for sure merchandise to run out,” the commerce company stated within the discover. signed by USTR Normal Counsel Greta Peisch.

A lot of the merchandise had been included in a fourth spherical of tariffs on Chinese language merchandise imposed by President Donald Trump on September 1, 2019, on the top of the US-China commerce warfare. They have been hit with an preliminary tariff fee of 15% in america, which was later lowered to 7.5% as a part of the “section 1” US-China commerce deal adopted in February 2020.