This webinar will be hosted virtually. For the US audience, the event will run from 5:00pm – 6:45pm Pacific Time / 8:00pm – 9:45pm Eastern Time, Monday, August 10. A webinar link will be provided following registration.
With a recent surge of COVID-19 cases in several states across America, the need for securing sources of personal protective equipment (PPE) is once again on the rise. While the US is ramping up its domestic manufacturing capacity to produce PPE, many US hospitals, consortiums and distributors continue to rely on China-produced PPE to meet both long and short-term demand.
During the initial wave of COVID-19, the American Chamber of Commerce in China (AmCham China) established a voluntary task force comprised of hundreds of our member company representatives spanning the logistics, sourcing, compliance, quality control, legal, and healthcare industries in an effort to bridge the gap between a suddenly booming supply of China-produced PPE and soaring US demand.
We are thus organizing this webinar to share the lessons learned from our months of trying to connect US purchasers with China sellers of PPE, in order to leave behind some best practices for those looking to establish both short and long term supplies of PPE. These findings will cover the potential pitfalls throughout the entire process: from searching for qualified providers, conducting quality checks, customs clearance, freight forwarding, all the way to delivering to end users.
Who should attend this webinar?
A range of public institutions in the states hit hard by COVID-19 in recent weeks.
What will this webinar cover?
What has changed?
In addition to the devastating health and economic toll the COVID-19 pandemic caused ruptures across global supply chains, exposing critical vulnerabilities for industries with an excessively lean just-in-time production and procurement model for key supplies.
What are the stakes?
Nowhere was this global disruption more dire than in the recent shortage of PPE supplies for medical workers. Beyond the widely publicized and debated focus on masks, the pandemic may have triggered a broader worldwide shortage of all forms of PPE indispensable for undisrupted healthcare services.
What are the implications for organizations that do or don't adapt successfully?
Some leading medical institutions have already shifted some focus away from buying pandemic-specific PPE for the frontlines workers, to the question of whether they can secure a stable supply of clinical-grade medical equipment necessary for regular hospital operations over the medium term.
Please note that this webinar will NOT offer any medical advice on COVID-19. This webinar is intended purely as an information-sharing session regarding lessons learned from our firsthand experience working with US institutions to obtain PPE from China. None of the information provided during this event should be considered as legal advice.
For more information on AmCham China, please click here. For more COVID-19 resources from AmCham China, please click here.