The tariff war launched by US President Donald Trump has suddenly raised the cost of critical imported research supplies for scientific labs in the United States and China.
“We are talking about everything from glassware and reagents to spectrometers and DNA sequencers. These are the core infrastructure of modern science,” said Tinglong Dai, who studies global supply chains at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.
“With tariffs now jumping to 104 per cent – or whatever the number is – it’s like doubling the price tag on a huge chunk of lab infrastructure overnight.”
While both countries will be affected, experts said the US was likely to be hit harder – at least initially.
This is in part because Washington is locked in a trade war with the rest of the world, making it difficult for US businesses to cushion the shock by importing from countries other than China. The country also has fewer policy levers to counter the effects.
