China’s exports of coronavirus-critical medical products nearly tripled in 2020, with US$105 billion in goods shipped
- Global trade in medical goods hit US$2.3 trillion in 2020 as the world responded to the coronavirus outbreak
- Chinese exports of products critical to combating Covid-19 surged from US$38 billion in 2019 to US$105 billion in 2020, according to the World Trade Organization (WTO)
China exported the largest amount of coronavirus-critical medical products in 2020, with the US$105 billion worth of equipment shipped overseas – almost three times the level seen a year earlier, according to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
This represented global growth of 16 per cent, compared with the previous year. In contrast, the total value of the world’s merchandise trade contracted by 7.6 per cent in 2020.
The share of medical goods in world trade grew from 5.3 per cent in 2019 to 6.6 per cent in 2020, according to the Trade in Medical Goods in the Context of Tackling Covid-19: Developments in 2020 report from the WTO.
The surge of exports pushed China to the position of top exporter in 2020. Another economy that saw a big jump in exports in 2020 was Malaysia, which registered a 52 per cent annual increase
Overall, the global trade in goods considered critical in efforts to stop the coronavirus grew by 31 per cent in 2020. These goods include face masks, ventilators, sterilizers and ultrasonic scanners.
“The world’s top three merchandise traders – China, the United States and Germany – are also the top three traders for Covid-19-critical products. While the share of these three economies in total world merchandise trade was around 31 per cent in 2020, their share for Covid-19-critical products is even higher, at 41 per cent. The top 10 economies accounted for around 72 per cent of world supplies – although the shares of the economies ranked fifth to 10th were relatively small,” said the WTO report.