CAP Advocates for Tariff Exemption for Medical Device Products, Including Laboratory Supplies

The College of American Pathologists (CAP) is urging the U.S. Department of Commerce to exempt medical device products, including laboratory supplies, from recently imposed tariffs.

The Commerce Department initiated a Section 232 investigation on pharmaceutical and pharmaceutical ingredient imports on April 1. Stakeholder organizations, including the American Hospital Association, responded to a request for comment to maintain tariff exemptions for those products to mitigate care disruptions. The tariffs have not yet been imposed as the investigation is ongoing.

In an Aug. 22 letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, CAP President Donald S. Karcher, M.D., said “the CAP is deeply concerned about the impact of tariffs on laboratory products, including diagnostic medical supplies, equipment, and devices.” The letter goes on to request an exemption from tariffs, as well as protection from any retaliatory tariffs, “[g]iven the extreme importance of these products to pathologists.”

Karcher voices the concerns of pathologists and other physicians about their inability to absorb the increased costs associated with the tariffs and warns that these increases, coupled with federal and private payer reimbursement cuts, could lead to delays or limits for necessary testing and decreased innovation in laboratory medicine. The increased financial burden would disproportionately impact rural and other medically underserved areas, he writes.

Source:

https://documents.cap.org/documents/CAP-Tariff-letter-to-Admin-082625.pdf?_gl=1*18edme3*_ga*NTAyNDM3ODcwLjE3NDg4NjYzMjg.*_ga_97ZFJSQQ0X*czE3NTYzMTMwMjYkbzE4JGcwJHQxNzU2MzEzMDI4JGo1OCRsMCRoMA

https://www.bis.doc.gov/index.php/other-areas/office-of-technology-evaluation-ote/section-232-investigations

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/04/16/2025-06587/notice-of-request-for-public-comments-on-section-232-national-security-investigation-of-imports-of

https://www.aha.org/news/chairpersons-file/2025-05-19-tariff-implications-american-health-care