China delays exports of ventilators and other crucial medical supplies. The Chinese government has ordered that no more N95 respirators, ventilators, hospital gowns and other key medical supplies be exported until customs officials perform quality inspections on each shipment. The new policy, announced by China’s General Administration of Customs on Friday, produced immediate delays to cargos on Saturday as manufacturers, freight agents and traders tried to understand how to comply. China is the world’s dominant producer of a wide range of medical supplies, and its manufacturing lead has widened in many sectors as it has engaged in a nationwide mobilization of medical supplies production since late January. The Chinese customs agency said that it had previously checked whether medical supplies were accurately counted, whether they infringed foreign patents and other intellectual property, and whether they had fraudulent documents. But now the agency will also assess the quality of goods. The agency gave no indication of how long the quality testing might take. The policy comes after a series of complaints from Europe that medical supplies from China had problems. Chinese officials have countered that many of these supplies were industrial respirators that were not designed to meet medical standards and should not be expected to do so. The new rules cover China’s exports in 11 categories: medical respirators and surgical masks, medical protective clothing, infrared thermometers, ventilators, surgical caps, medical goggles, medical gloves, medical shoe covers, patient monitors, medical disinfection towels and medical disinfectants.
I doubt a customs agent knows whether an N95 is within spec...quality control is done at the plant, not the port. This is China putting a public bow on a pig.
China is a bad actor. They hid crucial information then fudged numbers and shipped defective test kits and PPEs to their client countries. I'm hoping for a real pullback of the US from China. They should not dominate the manufacturing of critical medical substances needed in the US. They should not become a critical point of failure in our supply chains. We were starting to have a resurgence of manufacturing in the USA. We should incentivize companies to produce domestically. When they break their trade agreement promises I hope we tariff all Chinese products. All of it.
Trump can make a deal where we move all this production to Mexico and help boost their economy in exchange for better border policing and trade cooperation. Win win for everyone. lot easier to truck masks 3 days from Mexico then 3 to 4 weeks on a ship or have to use cargo planes
I don't know if DOD would agree to put our supply chain in another country's hands all over again, or if Mexico would want to put themselves in a position where said supply chain becomes a national security issue to the US.
Mexico has shown that they can manufacture... for years. I've personally owned a pickup truck made in Mexico except the engine made by International in the USA. Owned it for years and no defects. Labor is still cheap in Mexico relative to the US. If companies insist on exploiting a labor inefficiency then at least exploit one where it helps solve a local problem. I would definitely rather see Mexico pick up a lot of manufacturing than see it stay in China. Canadians have been known to build stuff too, when they can find their ass.
Well 3M is not DOD and N95 are used mainly for industrial uses so Mexico can make them for 3M with better quality control. Not like they are making F15 fighters
It took a bug to kill soon 10s of thousands of Americans & do as much economic damage as warfare did. Tell me how compromising the PPE & pharma supply chain is not a national security risk having now the power of hindsight?
No matter what, the DOD cannot force private companies to develop commercial business in the U.S. versus overseas. DOD has no power over the pharma and PPE companies and it is not a DOD issue. Military is not in charge of this virus response. This bug or the next bug or whatever, no one is going to make PPE and drugs in the U.S. because Americans want cheap shit first no matter how gullible they are when Trump promised to bring back businesses. Mexico is the best option due to NAFTA and proximity and the large number of manufacturing already done in Mexico. Add to that Dominican Republic and a few other CONCACAF countries and big difference having it in this region than in GYNA.