Just How Dependent is America on Foreign Medical Supplies?

In 2002-a good baseline, since that's the first year China was a member of the World Trade Organization-imports overall accounted for 16.7 percent of all surgical appliances and supplies used in the United States.

Notably, these imports from China were a tiny 1.5 percent in 2002, and had actually dropped to 0.49 percent by 2008.

Keeping this qualification in mind, overall, 32.41 percent of surgical appliances and supplies were imported from other countries by 2011, according to these figures.

Again, the China figures are small beans-the import penetration rate for 2016 was a mere 2.35 percent.

Third and fourth, with 8.87 percent and 8.39 percent of imports, were Germany and India, respectively, both of which have limited or embargoed their medical exports this year.

Last year, America's leading foreign supplier of surgical and medical instruments was Mexico, which sold U.S. customers 28.58 percent of the $17.62 billion of total imports.

For surgical appliances and supplies, Ireland topped the 2019 foreign supplier list, selling the United States 24.09 percent of its $18.21 billion of total imports.


https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/just-how-dependent-is-america-on-foreign-medical-supplies/