MAPLEWOOD, Minn. — President Trump and Minnesota-based 3M have apparently ended their public feud and announced a plan to import more than 166 million respirators for health care workers in the United States over the next three months.
The announcement comes less than a week after President Trump used his authority under the Defense Production Act to require 3M to distribute its masks only in the U.S. during the coronavirus pandemic. In response, 3M cautioned that importing its masks exclusively for the United States could have larger consequences should other countries retaliate, which could potentially reduce the number of respirators available to the United States.
President Trump said that the “3M saga ends very happily. We’re very proud to be dealing now with 3M.” The president said that the Minnesota-based company agreed to deliver an additional “55.5 million high-quality face masks each month.”
In a press release Monday, 3M said it will work with the White House to ensure the deal does not have "humanitarian implications for countries currently fighting the COVID-19 outbreak."
3M and the White House will also work together to fight price gouging and counterfeiting.
“I want to thank President Trump and the Administration for their leadership and collaboration,” 3M chairman and CEO Mike Roman said in a statement. “We share the same goals of providing much-needed respirators to Americans across our country and combating criminals who seek to take advantage of the current crisis. These imports will supplement the 35 million N95 respirators we currently produce per month in the United States.”
Most of the imported respirators will come from 3M's manufacturing facility in China, with the Trump Administration agreeing to remove certain export and regulatory restrictions.
Under the deal, 3M will continue to send some U.S.-made respirators to Canada and Latin America, where 3M is the primary supplier of such masks.
“Given the reality that demand for respirators outpaces supply, we are working around the clock to further expand our capacity, while prioritizing and redirecting our supplies to serve the most critical areas,” Roman said in his statement. “We’ll continue to do all we can to protect our heroic healthcare workers and first responders, and I want to thank our 96,000 3Mers for your tireless efforts – including those in our plants and distribution centers around the world.”
3M previously announced it had already doubled global output on N95 respirators, and expected to double capacity again within a year. According to its press release, 3M expects to be producing N95 respirators at a rate of 50 million per month in June, an increase of 40%.
3M's N95 respirators are widely considered to be the gold standard of protective masks for medical professionals during the coronavirus pandemic, as the virus primarily spreads through respiratory droplets.
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