The Point has been repeatedly writing about the importance of an export ban on PPEs and other medical equipment. On Friday, President Trump followed up on other measures with a qualified export ban.

America is at war against an invisible enemy.  Unfortunately, the outbreak of the virus has led to wartime profiteering by unscrupulous brokers, distributors, and other intermediaries operating in secondary markets.  This wartime profiteering is leading to hoarding and soaring prices for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) like masks, gloves, and N-95 respirators, all of which are needed to protect American citizens, including our heroic healthcare professionals, battling on the front lines.

The ability of wartime profiteers to purchase domestic supplies of scarce and critical materials, hoard them while they engage in profiteering and speculation, and then export them can generate foreign demand, and lead to price gouging.  This conduct denies our country and our people the materials they need to win the war against the virus.

Wartime profiteers may include a large army of speculators and warehouse operators operating in the dark corners of our markets.  They may also include some well-established PPE distributors with the ability to unscrupulously divert PPE inventories from domestic customers, such as hospitals and State governments, to foreign purchasers willing to pay significant premiums.

Today’s order is another step in our ongoing fight to prevent hoarding, price gouging, and profiteering by preventing the harmful export of critically needed PPE.  It will help ensure that needed PPE is kept in our country and gets to where it is needed to defeat the virus.

Nothing in this order will interfere with the ability of PPE manufacturers to export when doing so is consistent with United States policy and in the national interest of the United States.

The real problem has been the Chinese and other foreign interests buying up huge stockpiles of protective equipment in the US. And this order provides protection against mass export.

  To ensure that these scarce or threatened PPE materials remain in the United States for use in responding to the spread of COVID-19, it is the policy of the United States to prevent domestic brokers, distributors, and other intermediaries from diverting such material overseas.

Canada’s Trudeau is quite unhappy and the media is blaming President Trump’s export ban for a tilt to China. That’s nonsense. 

Prime Minister Trudeau had been China’s hand puppet all along. President Trump’s move to protect American health care workers from PPE shortages did not do that. 

And then there’s all the whining from non-profits. And USAID, which was recently caught shipping PPEs as foreign aid.

In a strategy document obtained by POLITICO and crafted by the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, U.S. officials argue that mitigating the virus in poorer countries “is critical for the safety and security of the American people.” Failing to do so could derail U.S. efforts to help other countries become more financially sound and independent, they add.

Does anyone believe these lies anymore? It’s critical for the safety of the American people to let health care workers get the coronavirus so we can ship more foreign aid to Pakistan?

 The Trump administration has even asked aid groups to share those supplies with the U.S. government, in a bizarre reversal of the usual dynamic between the world’s leading power and those it typically helps.

After raising countless billions in this country, how dare they be asked to share supplies with Americans.

Multiple reports emerged this week in which foreign officials accused Americans — including U.S. government representatives — of essentially commandeering shipments of medical supplies meant for other countries, among them generally well-off U.S. allies in Europe.

So they were doing their job?

In one case, according to a report in The Guardian, American buyers managed to “wrest control” of a shipment of masks from China that was supposed to go to France by offering three times the selling price. In another report, a German official accused the U.S. of an “act of modern piracy” after a shipment of masks from China that was meant for Berlin were seized and diverted to the U.S. while en route in Thailand. Similar reports emerged from Brazil, where a top official said China had set aside his country’s orders for equipment after the U.S. sent some 20 planes to pick up materials for itself.

This is what America First looks like.