Wow: Trump administration asks 3M to stop exporting its respirators to Canada and Latin America. 3M says no in new press release, citing concerns over the humanitarian impacts of that decision and saying it could backfire for US https://news.3m.com/press-release/company-english/3m-response-defense-production-act-order">https://news.3m.com/press-rel...

Trudeau’s response: “trade goes in both directions…there are thousand of nurses in Windsor, who work in Detroit everyday, Americans depend on them…it would be a mistake for both of our countries to limit access to goods and essential personnel” https://barrie360.com/trudeau-3m-respond-to-trumps-request-to-stop-selling-n95-respirators-to-canada/">https://barrie360.com/trudeau-3...

Looks like France and Germany are also frustrated with the Trump administration confiscating hundreds of thousands of Europe-bound masks and diverting them to the US. Alliances solidarity stops at the pandemic’s edge? https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-03/germany-and-france-blame-americans-for-playing-dirty-over-masks">https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...

The State Dept also instructed its diplomats abroad to ask for medical equipment they could send to the US. The directive went out from an office that coordinates US foreign assistance to other countries.

Now that office is apparently doing the opposite https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/03/23/us-medical-supplies-coronavirus-appeal-aid/">https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/03/2...