Trade in Medical Goods in the Context of Tackling COVID-19

Abstract

• China was the top supplier of face masks, accounting for 56 per cent of world exports. To ramp up mask manufacturing, China leaned heavily on imports of intermediate input materials: its imports of non-woven fabric tripled in April 2020 compared with the same month of 2019, with Japan and the United States as the leading suppliers. China was also the sixth-largest importer of face masks in the first half of 2020.