President Trump is to use wartime powers to crack down on the export of vital medical gear as officials try to ensure that health workers have the equipment they need to battle the coronavirus pandemic.
Provision of gloves, respirators, and ventilators has become a source of anger for health workers on the front lines of what Trump has described as a war against an invisible enemy.
While the administration has tried to ramp up production of equipment such as ventilators, officials on Thursday set their sights on brokers they said were preventing hospitals benefiting and who were shipping supplies out of the country.
During his regular coronavirus briefing on Thursday, Trump moved to ensure that manufacturers have the components needed for respirators.
“Moments ago, I directed Secretary Azar and acting Secretary Wolf to use any and all available authority under the Defense Protection Act to ensure that domestic manufacturers have the supplies they need to produce ventilators for patients with severe cases of COVID-19,” he said.
But his administration also promised action to stop hoarders and middlemen profiteering from scarce medical supplies.
Peter Navarro, the national Defense Production Act policy coordinator, appeared in the White House briefing room to announce that Trump would, on Friday, sign an order to prohibit what he called the “black market” trade in personal protective equipment by targeting brokers and profiteers that were shipping vital equipment overseas.
“It’s going to empower Customs and Border Protection, with the help of people like the Post Office, and express mail consignors like UPS, to deal with that issue. We are going to crack down unmercifully.”
The United States has still not reached the peak of the coronavirus crisis, according to forecasts.
By Thursday evening, the total number of cases in the U.S. was climbing toward a quarter of a million with more than 5600 deaths, according to a tally maintained by Johns Hopkins University.
But, amid the deaths, Trump supporters believe the outbreak, which began in China, reminds voters of the president’s “America First” message.
Navarro, one of the leading China hawks in the White House, is among the figures who believe the coronavirus crisis shows the danger of relying on foreign suppliers.
“One of things that this crisis has taught us is that we are dangerously overdependent on a global supply chain for medicines like penicillin, our medical supplies like masks, and our medical equipment like ventilators,” he said, particularly when some 50 countries had imposed restrictions on exports during the pandemic.
“When push comes to shove, you run the risk as a nation of not having what you need.”
He was speaking minutes after Trump used the televised update on his administration’s coronavirus response to call for national unity.
“I want to remind everyone here in the nation’s capital and especially in Congress that now is not the time for politics, endless partisan investigations … here we go again … have already done extraordinary damage in recent years,” he said. “You see what happens? It’s witch hunt after witch hunt after witch hunt.
“And, in the end, the people doing the witch hunt have been losing.”
