G/MA/W/175  
 
21 March  2022 
(22-2434) Page: 1/1 
Committee on Market Access  Original: English  
 
 
UNILATERAL MEASURES RELATING TO THE COVID -19 PANDEMIC:  
MEASURES TO FACILITATE THE IMPORTATION  OF VITAL MEDICAL SUPPLIES   
SINCE THE START OF THE PANDEMIC  
COMMUNICATION FROM THE UNITED KINGDOM  
The following communication, dated 18 March 2022, is being circulated at the request of the 
delegation of the United Kingdom . 
 
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1. The United Kingdom  wishes to provide more detail to  World Trade Organization Members o n the 
unilateral trade -facilitative measure s it has  introduced to combat  the COVID -19 pandemic.  
 
2. On 27 March 2020, while a member of the  EU Customs Union, the U nited Kingdom  introduced a 
temporary tariff relief under EU Commission  Decision  2020/491  to facilitate the importation of 
certain goods being imported by public sector health and charitable organisations and their proxies . 
This allowed VAT to be exempted and tariffs to be waived or reimbursed on certain  medical goods. 
This relief was retrospectively  applied to covered goods imported from 1 January 2020, up to 
31 December 2020.  Guidance and covered products at 8-digit level  with additiona l product 
information were listed on GOV.UK . 
 
3. On 1 January 2021, upon leaving the EU Customs Union, the United Kingdom replaced tariff relief 
measures with tariff suspensions , to last for 12 months . These suspensions extended  accessibility 
to private sector organisations  and streamlined the process , with goods being automatically tariff-
free instead of requiring an application  for reliefs . These measures appl ied to COVID -critical medical 
goods, which were identified using the 3rd Edition of the WCO/ WHO joint classification list  for COVID -
19 medical supplies . Many of the  products on this list  were already at a 0% MFN rate  under the UK ’s 
new, independent tariff schedule ; as a result, 89 tariff suspensions were needed  to cover all the 
products in this list . To avoid the risk of these tariff suspensions applying to non -COVID -19 products  
within the commodity codes they were implemented on , the United Kingdom created  additional 
4-digit cod es suffixed to existing 8 - and 10 -digit codes. This allowed for specificity in our trading 
systems at a more granular level.  
 
4. On 29 October, these tariff suspensions were extended through to 31 December 2022, to continue 
to support the United Kingdom’s healthcare response to the COVID -19 pandemic. An additional 
14 goods were included in the total list of COVID -critical goods eligibl e for tariff suspensions, taken 
from the WTO’s indicative list of COVID -19 vaccine inputs . This extension and expansion of the se 
tariff suspensions was informed by s takeholder engagement with the pharmaceutical industry.  
 
5. Throughout the pandemic, the UK has maintained transparency with traders and nations by 
publishing all of its COVID -19 trade measures  and outlining the guidance that traders need to follow 
in order to be eligible to apply for these measures, on GOV.UK . A full list of the United Kingdom’s 
current COVID -19 trade suspensions can be found here. 
 
 
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