Trump Reaches Deal With 3M on Face Masks for U.S. Virus Fight
3M to provide an additional 55.5 million masks a month for U.S. health-care workers and others fighting the coronavirus outbreak.
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump said his administration reached a deal for 3M Co. to provide an additional 55.5 million masks a month for U.S. health-care workers and others fighting the coronavirus outbreak.
“So the 3M saga ends very happily,” Trump said at a White House news conference Monday.
Trump has said he invoked the Defense Production Act to ban the export of supplies needed to fight the coronavirus pandemic, triggering a fight with 3M and allies including Canada. He’s used the act and his public pulpit to excoriate companies he sees as not fully cooperating with the government’s efforts to fight the virus.
Under the new deal, 3M will import the additional respirator masks -- a total of 166.5 million over a three-month span -- primarily from its manufacturing facility in China, the company said in a statement. The supply will supplement 3M’s current output of 35 million masks a month from a pair of U.S. facilities.
3M said it will be allowed to continue exporting some masks to Canada and Latin America from the U.S. The company pushed back last week against a request from the administration to halt exports of protective face masks, saying the move would cut off critical supplies for neighboring countries and raise “significant” humanitarian concerns.
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