Business Desk :
While the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has become a nightmare for many sectors, it has become a boon for medical goods makers, reports WTO
While the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has become a nightmare for many sectors, it has become a boon for medical goods makers, according to a WTO report released on Wednesday.
The report found trade in medical goods continued to register phenomenal growth of over 16 percent in 2020 compared to the 4.7 percent growth in 2019. But the overall world merchandise trade contracted by 7.6 percent in 2020.
Medicines remained the largest category by trade value, with more than 50 percent of the total share of medical goods in 2020. The highest share increase was for personal protective products (PPEs), which accounted for only 13.7 per cent in 2019 but increased to 17.4 percent in 2020.
Following up on the revised note issued on 22 December, the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) latest update includes 2020 trade statistics for medical goods from around 100 countries as well as comparisons with 2019 trade statistics.
The report also includes a special case study on diagnostic reagents and test kits, two critical products for monitoring the prevalence of the virus and which constitute a crucial barometer for governments to determine policies to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.
Imports and exports of medical goods were valued at $2,343 billion in 2020, up by 16.3 percent compared to the previous year.
China became the largest exporter of Covid-19-critical medical products in 2020. It exported products with a value of $105 billion, about 2.8 times its exports in 2019. Malaysia, which was among the top 10 exporters in 2020, registered a 52 percent year-on-year increase.
The world’s top 10 exporting economies supplied about three-quarters of world trade of Covid-19-critical products, while the top 10 importers accounted for 62 percent of world imports, according to the report.
Trade in test kits and diagnostic reagents increased sharply in March 2020 when Covid-19 became a global pandemic. In December 2020, the monthly year-on-year increase reached 90 percent for exports and 126 percent for imports. Singapore and Lithuania are among the top ten exporters of these products.
Diagnostic reagents and test kits account for around 10 percent of per capita import expenses on Covid-19-critical goods in the economies with the highest incidences of Covid-19, WTO says.
Global trade in goods critical for fighting the pandemic, such as face masks, ventilators, sterilizers and ultrasonic scanners, grew by 31 per cent in 2020.
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 percent in 2020, their share for Covid-19-critical products is even higher, at 41 percent.
