Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau has warned Donald Trump that his decision to stop a US manufacturing company from sending respirators to Canada could prompt retaliatory measures.
The Trump administration ordered 3M, a Minnesota-based manufacturer of protective healthcare equipment, to stop exporting protective masks to Canada and Latin America on Thursday.
Mr Trudeau said medical equipment “goes both ways across the border,” and noted that thousands of nurses travel from Canada to work in Detroit every day.
“These are things that Americans rely on and it would be a mistake to create blockages or reduce the amount of back and forth trade of essential goods and services, including medical goods, across our border,” he said.
Mr Trump said Wednesday that he used the Defence Production Act, a Korean War-era law, to compel 3M to sell its equipment to the US government.
EXCLUSIVE: New DC watchdog aims to become ‘leading voice’ for conservative values, effective governance
Sanders becomes first senator to say Israel committing genocide in Gaza
Judge orders Mahmoud Khalil deported to Algeria or Syria
Immigration judge orders deportation of Mahmoud Khalil to Syria or Algeria
Cornell MBA council warns ‘non-marginalized’ students to avoid minority recruiting events: report
Spirit Airlines pilot scolded after straying too close to Trump’s Air Force One
What Saved the US in the Late 1960s Appears to Be Happening Again, Particularly After Kirk’s Assassination
Trump to designate antifa as ‘major terrorist organization’
New Hampshire daycare worker who secretly gave kids melatonin spared jail
Trump to designate antifa a ‘major terrorist organization’
EXCLUSIVE: Man who sparred with Muslim Dearborn mayor, told he wasn’t ‘welcome’ revealed as Christian minister
Breaking: Kimmel Booted from Air Over Kirk Comments, ABC to ‘Replace the Show with Other Programming’
Alert: Multiple Officers Down in PA Shooting, Mexican Consulate Issues Strange Message Immediately After
ABC pulls Jimmy Kimmel indefinitely following Charlie Kirk comments
Fox News Politics Newsletter: Kash clashes with the Senate
“We hit 3M hard today after seeing what they were doing with their Masks. ‘P Act’ all the way,” Mr Trump wrote on Twitter. “Big surprise to many in government as to what they were doing — will have a big price to pay!” he added.
Hospitals across the world are facing severe shortages of protective equipment, which puts medical staff at greater risk as they treat coronavirus patients. In the US, many doctors and nurses are re-using their masks every day.
3M said it had been asked by the White House to limit exports of protective equipment manufactured in the US to Canada and Latin America, which the company opposed on “humanitarian grounds.”
The company said in a statement that there were “significant humanitarian implications of ceasing respirator supplies to healthcare workers in Canada and Latin America, where we are a critical supplier of respirators. In addition, ceasing all export of respirators produced in the United States would likely cause other countries to retaliate and do the same, as some have already done.”
Story cited here.
