The White House has struck a deal with 3M to produce tens of millions of face masks for doctors and nurses treating COVID-19 patients.
President Trump announced the agreement on Monday at a press briefing for the White House coronavirus task force. The president said that the deal was struck after he used his authority under the Defense Production Act to direct 3M’s production.
“We have reached an agreement, very amicable agreement, with 3M for the delivery of an additional 55.5 million high-quality face masks each month,” Trump said. “We are going to be getting, over the next couple of months, 166.5 million masks for our front-line healthcare workers.”
He added, “The 3M saga ends very happily.”
The president authorized the use of the act on Friday to compel 3M to begin shipping masks made in the company’s overseas manufacturers to the United States and to prevent the company from exporting masks made domestically. Prior to the Monday announcement, the White House slammed 3M for not prioritizing U.S. need for its products.
“While hundreds of other large American multinationals are stepping up with pride and patriotism, 3M remains an outlier, and its propaganda war must stop,” White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told the New York Times. “[3M is] operating like a sovereign profit-maximizing nation internationally.”
