PARIS/BERLIN • As the United States U-turns on mask wearing, with the country urging everyone to wear one, Washington's allies have accused the country of "mask piracy", including a failed attempt to get its hands on Singapore-made masks meant for Asia.
From Europe to South America, the allies are complaining about the superpower's "Wild West" tactics in outbidding or blocking shipments to buyers who have already signed deals for vital medical supplies.
As of last Friday evening, the US had more than 270,000 declared Covid-19 cases and more than 7,400 fatalities, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University.
In France and Germany, senior officials said the US was paying far above the market price for medical-grade masks from No. 1 producer China, on occasion winning contracts through higher bids, even after European buyers believed a deal was done.
"Money is irrelevant. They pay any price because they are desperate," one high-level official in German Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling CDU/CSU group told Reuters.
A German government source said: "Americans are on the move, carrying a lot of money." Since the virus was first recorded in China late last year, the pandemic has spread around the world. Governments in Europe, the Americas and elsewhere are desperately trying to build up supplies for medics, nursing home staff and the public.
Now, with global cases surpassing one million and the outbreak exploding in the US, competition for precious stocks is intensifying further.
US President Donald Trump said last Friday that the US government is now recommending that Americans wear cloth face covering on a voluntary basis to stem the spread of the virus, as research has shown that the virus can be spread by normal breathing, though the President made a point of saying that he, for one, chose not to do so.
The Trump administration is also using a Korean War-era law to redirect to the US surgical masks manufactured by US-listed multinational 3M in other countries as part of a heated pressure campaign to force the company to cut off sales of surgical masks abroad.
Financial Times reported that the Trump administration tried, and failed, to force 3M to export about 10 million N95 masks to the US from its hub in Singapore. The masks are meant for markets in Asia.
In another case, an order of 200,000 masks bound for Germany from a 3M factory in China were "confiscated" in Bangkok, Berlin Secretary of Interior Andreas Geisel said in a statement, calling it an "act of modern piracy".
Dr Peter Navarro, the White House trade adviser in charge of policy related to the Act, levelled a broadside last Friday against 3M, all but accusing it of disloyalty.
"While hundreds of other large American multinationals are stepping up with pride and patriotism, 3M remains an outlier and its propaganda war must stop," he said, adding that the company was "operating like a sovereign profit-maximising nation internationally".
But 3M defended its actions and said the administration had also asked it to stop exporting respirators made in the US to Canada and Latin America - a request it said carried "significant humanitarian implications" for people in those areas.
A US Department of Homeland Security official told Reuters last week that US companies and the government have been paying above market price for much of the gear purchased overseas.
The official, who requested anonymity, said the US would not stop buying "until we have way too much" and could still be searching out protective gear abroad through August.
REUTERS, NYTIMES
