China imposes import restrictions on medical equipment from the EU costing more than 5.4 million euros. This is in response to a measure by the European Commission that prevents Chinese companies from participating in European tenders.
European companies that supply medical equipment are no longer allowed to register for large Chinese government expenditures, the Chinese Ministry of Finance announced. The measure applies from Sunday. China is also restricting the import of medical devices from other countries if more than half of them consist of parts from the EU.
China is responding to restrictions imposed by the European Commission two weeks ago. Chinese companies have since been excluded from participation in European tenders.
According to the European Commission, China does not offer a fair chance to European companies. That is the conclusion of European administrators after an investigation that lasted nine months.
In China, there are many rules that ensure that Chinese companies are regularly preferred over European companies. If China does not fully open the market to European companies, it is not fair if Chinese companies do participate in the open European market, the European Commission argues.
It is still unclear what the impact of the Chinese measure will be on the Eindhoven-based healthcare technology company Philips. That supplies, among other things, ventilators, MRI scanners and patient monitoring systems. Philips has not yet responded to the measures.