Government intervenes as supplies to fight the coronavirus falls, demand rises. The Federal Emergency Management Agency this week unveiled regulations restricting the export of five types of personal protective equipment, saying the items could no longer be exported without explicit FEMA approval. Scheduled to take effect Friday, the list includes N95 respirators; other filtering facepiece respirators; reusable elastomeric air-purifying respirators and cartridges; surgical masks and surgical gloves. Trump signaled he would ban the export of the medical gear earlier this week, but the regulations offer new detail about how the prohibition will work. The rule is expected to last four months. Ref. USAToday.
I assume this means not exporting them to other countries? I can understand that, as long as these items go to those who need them here. Four months is a long time, I wonder if that means people will be out of work for longer than through April?
The thing is many countries outside the US already ordered and paid for those masks and they are being told they can't have them. I can understand if you want to stop export for new orders but not ones that were already to be shipped. Its unfair because if countries new they would not get the masks from a US supplier then they would order it elsewhere!
US companies kept shipping masks overseas in March, even as hospitals ran out. Warnings that hospitals would run out of critical safety equipment reached the highest levels of the White House, including Vice President Mike Pence, but exports continued at record levels through March. Source 7q.