China offered a new route for producers of medical goods to obtain export approval, a move that could help ease recent shipment delays of face masks, test kits and other critical medical equipment to fight coronavirus to the US and other countries, reported the Wall Street Journal.
Makers of medical gear in China that met the national standards of their foreign buyer can apply for export approval through an industry association, Chinese authorities said Sunday.
This would allow manufacturers to bypass an earlier rule that required exporters to obtain a certification from Chinese medical-product regulators. The policy, introduced on March 31 to boost quality control of Chinese medical-supplies exports, led to a significant shipment bottleneck in items including masks, ventilators, surgical gowns and testing reagents, essential for medical workers world-wide to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
China’s export rules weren’t meant to restrict exports of items required to fight the pandemic, but to help improve quality control of those products, said Li Xingqian, a director at the Ministry of Commerce. More than a billion masks were exported on April 24, almost five times the number of masks that left the country on March 31, he said.
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