近日，美国国内新冠肺炎确诊病例和死亡人数持续上升，美国两个人口和经济大州——加州和纽约州——也先后宣布进入紧急状态。随着疫情的扩散，美国国内对相关医疗物资的需求也骤然上升。
以口罩为例，据《纽约邮报》报道，美国卫生部长亚历克斯·阿扎2月25日在接受国会议员质询时称，美国医护人员的口罩需求缺口达到2.7亿。
当地时间3月6日，有美国媒体报道称，特朗普政府已经批准豁免自中国进口的100多种医疗产品的进口关税，包括口罩、手套和消毒湿巾。
The Trump administration has granted exclusions from import tariffs for more than 100 medical items imported from China, including face masks, examination gloves and sanitizing wipes.
报道称，美国政府这次批准了27家企业的关税豁免申请。这些企业在1月31日的截止日期之前，提交了申请，那时疫情主要发生在中国，但是美国公司已着手准备应对国内流行的情况了。
根据路透社报道，相较往常，此次这些企业的申请处理流程，明显被加快了。
新冠肺炎疫情暴发期间，很多关税豁免的申请看上去都被加快了，从1月31日截止日期到获准，只用了一多个月的时间。
Many of the exclusion requests for medical products appear to have been expedited amid the rapidly spreading coronavirus outbreak, with approvals granted just over one month past a Jan. 31 application deadline.
其他自中国进口产品的免关税申请审批往往要耗时数月之久。苹果公司去年10月31日，就提交了耳机和智能音箱的关税豁免申请，至今仍未有结果。
Requests to exclude other products from President Donald Trump’s Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods have taken months. Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) requests for exclusions on products from AirPod headphones to the HomePod smart speaker filed on Oct. 31 are still pending.
据彭博社报道，美国一家名为Medegen医疗产品的公司，也在此次豁免名单之列。该公司在申请中表示，对这些产品加征关税将导致较大的经济损害，并且增加美国医疗卫生服务提供商和他们的顾客的成本。
该公司指出，其申请关税豁免的产品“检查手套”的生产极大依赖中国，把生产转移到美国或第三个国家，不太现实也不具有竞争力。
有公司则表示，即使公司尽可能扩大产能，但也必须最大化扩大进口渠道，不论是不是中国的产品。
The exclusions on Thursday were the first to be granted under the $120 billion fourth tranche of tariffs, which affects $120 billion in Chinese goods.
实际上，在美国政府作出最终的豁免决定之前，美国政界就有人在呼吁扩大医疗用品的进口。
美国《商业内幕网》（Business Inside）报道，共和党参议员科里·加德纳在上周就致信美国贸易代表办公室称，扩大医疗用品的供应对控制美国疫情至关重要。
“要确保美国做好准备控制新冠疫情暴发，关键医疗商品的供给充沛至关重要。”
"To ensure that the United States is prepared to contain and combat the spread of this outbreak, it is crucial that there is a robust supply of critical medical products," Republican Senator Cory Gardner wrote in a letter to the USTR last week.
“我们必须做好应对医疗供应需求增长的准备，为此，我请求美国贸易代表办公室取消对特定医疗用品加征的有害关税，消除进口障碍。”
"We must be prepared for increased medical supply demand in the United States, and to that end, I request that USTR eliminate these harmful tariffs on certain medical products and remove barriers to importation."
在去年6月，美国贸易代表办公室举办的听证会上，美国卫生行业分销商协会主席马修就曾作证说：“关税给医疗服务和公共卫生带来的风险，大于其给贸易或经济带来的益处”。可惜当时的美国政府并没有听进去。
The risks to health care and public health from tariffs outweigh any benefit to trade or economics,” he said.
Hand sanitiser and respiratory masks were in some cases being sold on the site on Monday at a more than 2,000 percent mark-up, compared to normal retail prices……
Among the many examples still available at the time of writing, a pack of 20 masks made by manufacturer 3M, but sold by an unauthorised reseller, was on sale at $387, compared to a normal retail price of around $14.99. A pack of 24 2oz bottles of Purell hand sanitiser, typically sold for less than $10 a box, was listed at $400.
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