3M warns Trump: Halting exports under Defense Production Act would reduce number of masks available to US

The White House reportedly tried to force 3M to export 10 million N95 masks from its Singapore facilities to the U.S. rather than sending them to its markets in Asia, the Financial Times reported, citing a person familiar with the conversations.

In a tweet Thursday night, Trump claimed that the White House “hit 3M hard today after seeing what they were doing with their Masks.”

“‘P Act’ all the way,” Trump added, referring to the Defense Production Act, a Korean War-era law.

On Friday, 3M CEO Mike Roman responded to Trump’s tweet on CNBC: “The idea that 3M is not doing all it can to fight price gouging and unauthorized reselling is absurd. The idea that we’re not doing everything we can to maximize deliveries of respirators in our home country – nothing is further from the truth.”

Roman and his company noted that 3M was already working with the Trump administration on getting more masks to the U.S. prior to Trump’s invocation of the DPA.

“We have been working closely with the Administration to do exactly that, and we appreciate the authorities in the DPA that provide a framework for us to expand even further the work we are doing in response to the global pandemic crisis,” 3M said. “We look forward to working with FEMA to implement yesterday’s order.”

Over the weekend, the company said, the Trump administration “requested that 3M increase the amount of respirators we currently import from our overseas operations into the U.S. We appreciate the assistance of the Administration to do exactly that.”

The company also said that “earlier this week, we secured approval from China to export to the U.S. 10 million N95 respirators manufactured by 3M in China.”

Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/03/coronavirus-3m-tells-trump-halting-exports-would-reduce-number-of-masks.html