Canada not retaliating to resolve its conflict with U.S. over N95 masks, uses other ways

#N95Masks; #3M; #DefenseProductionAct; #DonaldTrump; #JaredKushner; #JustinTrudeau

Ottawa, Apr 5 (Canadian-Media): When Canada learnt that U.S. had ordered Minnesota company 3M, which produces N95, used by front-line health workers, not to export these masks to Canada and other countries by invoking Defense Production Act (DPA), Canada was both angry as well as unhappy, media reports said.

N 95 mask. Image credit: Twitter handle

The president of U.S. is empowered by DPA, which was passed 1950, to expand industrial production of key materials or products for national security and other reasons. 

3M company warned that by U.S. stopping mask exports could prompt retaliatory measures that could hurt the U.S.

"There are, however, significant humanitarian implications of ceasing respirator supplies to health-care workers in Canada and Latin America, where we are a critical supplier of respirators," the company said in its statement.

3M company also said U.S.' decision could actually result in fewer masks being available for Americans if other countries retaliate.

When U.S. President Donald Trump learnt of 3M company's disapproval of Trump's decision, he labelled the company as bad.

On Friday Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Trudeau said his government has clarified to the Americans that the flow of essential supplies, products and services both ways between Canada and the United States every day was important, highlighting the example of nurses from Windsor, Ont., who travel to Detroit to work. 

Trudeau said, during his daily briefings Saturday that he will not be retaliating as it would hurt both the countries and announced that millions of surgical masks and other supplies are expected to  to arrive in Canada Monday on a chartered cargo plane from China. 

To resolve this dispute, the Trudeau government is looking to the relationships it established with some of the U.S. political leaders during NAFTA negotiations, including Trump's son-in law and and special advisor, Jared Kushner.

Kushner had played a key role in finalizing NAFTA negotiations with both Mexico and Canada, and can influence Trump in ways that other members of the administration cannot. 

Although Kushner had been criticized in Washington, after being assigned key responsibilities within the White House coronavirus task force, the White House is standing by Kushner when he claimed that that the national stockpile of emergency medical equipment is not for use by states.