Behind the Tariffs: What a salad spinner reveals about tariff exemptions and China’s supply chains

  • How a kitchen tool can teach you about tax exemptions, innovation, patents and explain how China’s supply chains are unique in the world.

Jarrod Wattin Hong Kong,Finbarr Berminghamin BrusselsandNaomi Ng
What does a salad spinner have in common with a breast pump or guitar tuner?

What does it take to get an exclusion from US tariffs? More to the point, what do a breast pump, a soldering iron, a guitar tuner and a salad spinner have in common?

Each of these items has been granted an exclusion from tariffs by the Office of the US Trade Representative, and Naomi Ng heads off on a hunt for the Hong Kong engineer who owns the patent for the salad spinner.

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