The EU continues to suspend tariffs on imports of medical equipment and personal protective equipment

The European Union announced on Wednesday that it will continue to temporarily exempt the import of medical equipment and personal protective equipment from customs duties and value-added tax, so as to reduce the cost of masks, ventilators and other materials entering the EU market and help member states cope with the COVID-19 epidemic.

According to a statement issued by the European Commission on the same day, as novel Coronavirus infections are on the rise in the EU and member States still need to import medical devices and personal protective equipment to cope with the epidemic, the EU has decided to extend the validity of the existing tax exemption until April 30 next year.

Following the COVID-19 outbreak earlier this year, and at the request of all member states and the UK, which is still in transition from the EU, the EU announced on 3 April that imports of medical equipment and personal protective equipment would be temporarily exempted from duties and VAT. At that time, the exemption was confirmed to be valid for six months starting from 30 January this year but could be extended as appropriate.

According to the announcement of the European Commission, masks are still the most imported medical supplies in the EU, accounting for almost half of the total import amount of medical supplies. Now the European Union has issued more detailed tariff items for imported masks, in order to strengthen the quality supervision of imported masks.

In addition to continue to masks, breathing machine and other supplies a suspension of tariff and value-added tax, 28, expand the scope of duty-free, also suggested that members of the European Union to hospitals and medical personnel to buy new vaccines and virus detection kit temporary exemption of value-added tax, to further reduce the burden of medical institutions outbreak response, holiday until the end of who announced the disease or the European Union announced new value-added tax.