MMM 3M Company

By Allison Prang 

3M said it would work with the U.S. to implement the Defense Production Act but pushed back against criticisms that the company was favoring other, higher-paying countries with the distribution of its masks.

"We look forward to working closely with the Administration to implement yesterday's DPA order," 3M said Friday. "We will continue to maximize the amount of respirators we can produce on behalf of U.S. health-care workers, as we have every single day since this crisis began."

3M also said that China approved the company exporting 10 million of 3M's N95 respirators that were made in China to the U.S. The company said the Trump administration also asked that it stop exporting N95 respirators it makes in the U.S. to Latin America and Canada, but that "there are...significant humanitarian implications" to doing so.

"Ceasing all export of respirators produced in the United States would likely cause other countries to retaliate and do the same, as some have already done," 3M said Friday. "If that were to occur, the net number of respirators being made available to the United States would actually decrease."

A Florida official told Fox News that the state couldn't get masks because 3M was selling them to other countries that were paying a higher price.

3M pushed back against that sentiment Friday.

"We are working with the U.S. Attorney General and attorneys general of every state, making it clear that 3M has not and will not raise prices for respirators and offering our assistance in the fight," the company said.

The president had criticized 3M in a tweet on Thursday, saying his administration "hit 3M hard today after seeing what they were doing with their Masks."

There was no immediate comment from the White House on 3M's response.

3M has doubled production in recent months. But Chief Executive Mike Roman recently told The Wall Street Journal that "the demand we have exceeds our production capacity."

"The narrative that is, kind of, propagated broadly, and the focus there, it's just not true. We are doing everything. The employees of 3M around the world are working around-the-clock," Mr. Roman said in an interview Friday with CNBC.

Write to Allison Prang at allison.prang@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 03, 2020 10:19 ET (14:19 GMT)

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