Report Warns of Global ‘Economic Fallout’ if Virus Restrictions Persist After March

Coronavirus-induced travel and transportation restrictions that persist beyond March “are likely to pressure global supply chains and potentially create worldwide economic fallout,” said a Congressional Research Service report Wednesday. “Measures to contain the outbreak have significantly curtailed domestic and global transportation links, preventing the transport of many products and manufacturing inputs,” it said. Production has slowed across China, with “sharp slowdowns in sectors concentrated in Hubei,” including LCD panels, it said. Sourcing that diversified to other parts of Asia after the Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods “often depends on intermediate inputs from China and thus is not insulated from China’s production slowdown,” it said.