Pharmaceutical Products and Chemical Intermediates, Fourth Review: Advice Concerning the Addition of Certain Products to the Pharmaceutical Appendix to the HTS. Investigation No. 332-520

摘要

Under the Pharmaceutical Zero-for-Zero Initiative, which entered into force in 1995, the United States and its major trading partners eliminated tariffs on many pharmaceuticals, their derivatives, and certain chemical intermediates used to make pharmaceuticals. The U.S. list of pharmaceutical products and chemical intermediates that are eligible for dutyfree treatment under the agreement is presented in the Pharmaceutical Appendix to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States. This appendix is periodically updated to provide duty relief for additional products of this kind, including newly developed pharmaceuticals. This report provides advice on the fourth update to the agreement, in which approximately 735 products are proposed to receive duty-free treatment. In 2009, U.S. imports of products currently included in the Pharmaceutical Agreement totaled over $85 billion; U.S. exports of such products exceeded $41 billion. Industry sources provided trade estimates for just 12 percent of the items proposed for addition to the agreement and estimated that the value of U.S. imports for these items alone would total $440 million in 2010. U.S. exports of the same items would likely reach or exceed $150 million. Consequently, the U.S. import and export values in 2010 for all of the proposed items would likely be substantially larger than the estimates provided above.