Purell gets tariff exclusion as Trump reverses earlier rejection

The maker of Purell hand sanitizer was granted exclusions from U.S. tariffs on components it imports from China, in a reversal by the Trump administration aimed at lifting barriers for products used to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

In separate letters dated Friday, the U.S. Trade Representative’s office notified Gojo Industries, the inventor and manufacturer of Purell-branded products, that its requests to avoid tariffs on two imported pieces of its sanitizer dispensers had been approved.

A week before President Donald Trump announced a national emergency on March 13, the USTR told the Akron, Ohio-based company that both requests had been rejected.

The reversal came after pressure from lawmakers including Senator Rob Portman, a Republican from Ohio, on USTR Robert Lighthizer.

Hand sanitizer “is critical to the public health response to coronavirus,” Portman said in a statement Saturday. “We cannot let tariffs prevent the distribution of additional, much-needed hand sanitizer across the country.”

Gojo builds its hand-sanitizer and soap dispensers in the U.S., but key inputs made in China were subject to a 25% import tax that was part of Trump’s trade war with the world’s second-largest economy.

While Trump has said tariffs on Chinese products would stay in place despite the virus sending the U.S. economy into a sudden downturn, USTR has granted a number of exemptions in recent weeks including one for Apple Inc.’s popular watches.