Australia's CSL evaluates China tariff exemptions for its US-made drugs

SHANGHAI, China: Australia's CSL Ltd said it's evaluating whether its drugs used in surgery would be exempted from 125% tariffs China imposed on U.S.-made goods, as it seeks to minimise impact of a trade war between Beijing and Washington.

China has granted tariff exemptions on select products, including select pharmaceuticals, and has also created a non-public list of goods that would be exempted from duties, Reuters reported earlier on Wednesday, in the clearest sign yet of Beijing's concerns about the trade war's fallout.

The quiet approach allows Beijing, which has repeatedly said it is willing to fight until the end unless the U.S. lifts its 145% tariffs on Chinese imports, to maintain its public messaging while privately taking practical steps to provide concessions.

"We are aware of reports that certain goods imported from the U.S. into China are potentially being exempted from tariffs," a spokesperson for CSL told Reuters in a statement.

"We are working to determine the potential for our critical medicines to be covered by these exemptions."

CSL, Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical 4502.T and Spanish pharmaceutical firm Grifols GRLS.MC have at least one U.S. manufacturing site for human albumin sold in China, according to data from China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA).

Human albumin is used to replace lost fluids and restore blood volume in the human body. It is also used in treatments for conditions including cardiac surgery, cirrhosis and sepsis.

China and the United States are the two largest markets globally for albumin, according to Grifols.

The CSL spokesperson said that most of the albumin it exports into China is produced outside the U.S. but it had recently filed a regulatory submission in China for approving production at a site in Australia to "further diversify our global supply chain and help ensure longer-term stability in the supply" of the product in China.

Takeda and Grifols declined to comment on whether China had granted them tariff exemptions for their U.S.-made albumin imported to China.

China's Commerce Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The NMPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the application for Australia production.