3M, Under Attack From White House, Pushes Back -- 2nd Update
April 03 2020 - 2:55PM
Dow Jones News
By Austen Hufford and Allison Prang
3M Co. pushed back against criticism of its work to make more
N95 masks, intensifying conflict between the Trump administration
and U.S. manufacturers racing to meet urgent demand for medical
equipment.
The St. Paul, Minn.-based company said Friday that it had raised
domestic mask production, started imports from its plant in China
and taken action on reports of price gouging for masks, which
medical workers need to treat patients infected with the
coronavirus.
But the company said it wouldn't comply with a Trump
administration request to stop exporting some of its U.S.-made
masks to Canada and Latin America. President Trump on Thursday
invoked the Defense Production Act to force 3M to manufacture as
many N95 masks as the Federal Emergency Management Agency
determines are needed.
"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," Chief Executive Mike Roman said on CNBC.
3M is the latest company to draw criticism from President Trump
over its efforts to fight the coronavirus pandemic. Health workers
across the country are running short on N95 masks -- so-called
because they block 95% of very small particles -- as well as face
shields, gowns and the ventilators used to treat the sickest
patients with Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus.
The president criticized General Motors Co. last month for not
working fast enough to make ventilators. GM executives were
surprised by the criticism and felt the company was being unfairly
targeted, people familiar with their thinking told The Wall Street
Journal. The company emphasized the extent of it efforts to
administration officials, a person familiar with the matter said,
and the president changed his tone changed a couple of days later,
saying the auto maker is doing a "fantastic job."
President Trump said in a tweet on Thursday that his
administration "hit 3M hard today after seeing what they were doing
with their Masks."
3M is the primary U.S. producer of N95 masks, and health workers
consider its products the best on the market. Since cases of the
coronavirus began to proliferate in China in January, 3M has
doubled mask production to nearly 100 million masks a month
globally, and 35 million a month in the U.S.
That is the bulk of the U.S. capacity to make about 50 million
N95 masks each month, according to industry executives. 3M and
other companies including Honeywell International Inc. are working
to raise output in the coming weeks. The Department of Health and
Human Services estimated in March that the U.S. would need about
300 million N95 masks a month to confront a pandemic.
3M said that it was importing 10 million masks from its factory
in China to the U.S. at the administration's request but that it
wouldn't stop some exports to Canada and Latin America on
humanitarian grounds.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canadian officials spoke to
the Trump administration on Friday about maintaining trade in
health-care products and services between the two countries.
"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," he said. "It could end up hurting Americans as much
as it hurts anybody else."
--Paul Vieira contributed to this article.
Write to Austen Hufford at austen.hufford@wsj.com and Allison
Prang at allison.prang@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 03, 2020 14:40 ET (18:40 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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