Over a million coronavirus test kits and other urgently needed medical items bound for the U.S. are sitting in Chinese warehouses because suppliers don’t have the necessary new export clearances from officials in Beijing, The Wall Street Journal reports. Health-care equipment maker PerkinElmer, based in Massachusetts, has reportedly blamed new Chinese export restrictions for a delay in the shipping of 1.4 million test kits for COVID-19 from its factory in Suzhou. The restrictions were brought in this month, apparently to ensure the quality of the exported medical products and to prevent needed items from being shipped out of China. The Journal has obtained one memo sent from the U.S. State Department this week that said China’s policies have “disrupted established supply chains for medical products just as these products were most needed.”
Read it at The Wall Street Journal
