Minnesota-based 3M says it will continue to send N95 respirators to Canada after reaching an agreement with the White House to import millions of the increasingly scarce medical face masks from China into the United States.

The company says it worked with the Trump administration to make sure it could meet soaring American demand, without sacrificing its ability to provide the equipment to customers in Canada and Latin America.

Speaking at his daily press briefing, Trump says that the deal was a result of his actions under the Defence Production Act (DPA).

“I can also announce today that we’ve reached an agreement with — a very amicable agreement — with 3M for the delivery of an additional 55.5 million high quality face masks each month,” Trump said.

“So we’re going to be getting over the next couple of months 166.5 million masks for our frontline health care workers, so the 3M saga ends very happily.”

These imported masks are in addition to the 35 million masks produced by 3M in the United States each month.

The announcement comes just days after Trump tried to prevent 3M from exporting masks citing local need, a move that the company said would backfire on the U.S., while causing serious humanitarian ramifications.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said today that around three to four million medical masks ordered from 3M were blocked at the border yesterday. About 500,000 of those masks were later allowed into Canada.

In B.C., Health Minister Adrian Dix says the province is continuing to work hard in what is a tough supply market to obtain personal protective equipment, including masks. On Friday, Dix said restricting mask exports to Canada would not make sense for both countries, as they rely on each another.

 

– With files from the Canadian Press