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Global Health Econ Sustain Imports of essential medical products

of vehicles and furniture, medical devices, and protective Author contributions
garments needed by hospitals in their fight against disease.
It has also been shown that most of the products are not Conceptualization: All authors
sensitive to price changes because they are inelastic goods Investigation: All authors
indispensable in health sector, which can be hardly replaced Methodology: All authors
by other substitutes. The dummies included in the model Writing – original draft: All authors
indicate, on the one hand, that the pandemic has been the Writing – review and editing: All authors
driving force behind the trends in the import of certain Ethics approval and consent to participate
products (D2020), and on the other hand, that barriers to
trade imposed by the Third-World countries negatively Not applicable.
impact the import by European countries (Dextra). Consent for publication
The present analysis provides answers to all the
questions set out in Section 1: Not applicable.
(i) The import of essential medical products needed to Availability of data
combat the pandemic are generally driven by the same The data used in this research can be obtained from
factor, although due to the intrinsic characteristics of Eurostat: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database.
each one, some are more dependent on the wealth of
the country, while others depend more on the profile References
of the population.
(ii) Tariff agreements in the EU favor intra-EU trade over Anghelache, C., Stoica, R., & Dumitru, D. (2020). The evolution
of Romania’s International trade in goods and Services in the
goods from other countries. first quarter of 2020 and perspectives. Romanian Statistical
(iii) The import of some essential products have been Review, 6: 138-157.
severely affected by the growing demand driven by the
spread of the virus. Avendaño, H. (2020). Bienes médicos esenciales: Un mercado
(iv) The essential medical products have low price elasticity complejo (Essential medical goods: A market complex).
Revista Fasecolda, 178: 56-63. Article in Spanish.
as they are essential items.
Ayub, A.J. (2020). Trade during a Pandemic. Kuala Lumpur:
The research was carried out during the pandemic, Khazanah Research Institute, Discussion Paper 3/20.
coinciding with the first months of the mass vaccination
in most high-income countries. The logical continuation Baldwin, R., & Evenett, S. (2020). COVID-19 and Trade Policy:
of this study would be to analyze the effect of vaccination Why Turning Inward Won’t Work. A CEPR Press VoxEU.
org eBook. London: CEPR Press.
on the import of medical products, to determine whether
the immunization of the population alters demand for these Baldwin, R.E., & Tomiura, E. (2020). Thinking ahead about the
goods. It would also be interesting to study whether countries trade impact of COVID-19. In: Baldwin, R., & diMauro, B.W.
have adjusted their production to avoid a high degree of (eds.), Economics in the Time of COVID-19. London: CEPR
foreign dependency and to prevent the collapses during the Press, p.59-71.
early months of the spread of the virus. Unfortunately, this Bamber, P., Fernandez-Stark, K., & Taglioni, D. (2020). Four
study was limited by the lack of a global vision of the problem, Reasons Why Globalized Production Helps Meet Demand
which was due to the lack of comprehensive and up-to-date Spikes: The Case of Medical Devices and Personal and
information. We believe that when the pandemic abates to a Protective Equipment. World Bank Blog, Let’s Talk
greater extent, more accurate statistical information will be Development. United States: World Bank.
available for a global analysis to be conducted. Barua, S. (2020). COVID-19 Pandemic and World Trade: Some
Analytical Notes.
Acknowledgments https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3577627
None. Bukari, C., Aning-Agyei, M.A., & Kyeremeh, C. (2022). Effect
of COVID-19 on household food insecurity and poverty:
Funding Evidence from Ghana. Social Indicators Research, 159: 991-
None. 1015.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-021-02766-9
Conflict of interest
Casado-Aranda, L.A., Sánchez-Fernández, J., & Viedma-del-
The authors declare no conflicts of interest. Jesús, M.I. (2021). Analysis of the scientific production of

Volume 1 Issue 2 (2023) 10 https://doi.org/10.36922/ghes.1207