Medical devices hit hard by China tariffs: CEO says
An American business insists they are paying for the China tariffs, despite the Trump administration’s insistence China is taking on the financial burden.
Biotricity reportedly was hit by a 25-percent tariff on Chinese-imported parts, and last week alone, this amounted to more than $6,000, according to Department of Homeland Security documents given to FOX Business.
Biotricity is a medical-device company that focuses on lowering health care costs by using tech that helps manage chronic diseases like diabetes and cardio issues. The company says it has suffered from the new, 11-day-old tariffs because many of the small mechanical parts in its devices are only made in China.
Magazines with a front cover featuring Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump on trade war on sale at a roadside bookstand in Hong Kong.(AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)
One of Biotricity’s suppliers says it could no longer absorb the costs of tariffs the supplier is getting hit with, so it plans to raise the price of its products.
Biotricity’s founder and CEO, Waqaas Al-Siddiq, has responded with a call for Washington to exempt small businesses from tariffs.
Al-Siddiq told FOX Business' Liz Claman on "The Claman Countdown" his company has turned to manufacture in China because “in the FDA world, there are very few manufacturers that can actually produce the equipment in low volume for a small company.”
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The U.S. imports $5-billion worth of medical devices from China and exports $4.7 billion worth of medical devices to China, according to Al-Siddiq.
“China just said that they're going to remove the tariff on cancer drugs, so it's pretty even on the medical device space,” he said regarding exports and imports between the two countries.
The CEO said he tried to move some components to local producers in order to lower costs, but Biotricity was, again, hit with tariffs because the components came from China.
“At the very least, medical devices should be exempt, and if not medical devices, at least small/medium businesses because, for us, it's a distraction,” Al-Siddiq said.
"It's increasing health care costs and, ultimately, I'm an American company developing American intellectual property."
The Medical Imaging and Technology Alliance has estimated new tariffs will cost the U.S.’s medical-technology industry about $138 million.