Global stampede for masks spurs calls to resist hoarding

They normally traverse the world with little fanfare, but they might just be the most important factor in the global market today, responsible for the health of people, for fragile financial markets and for even the sturdiest of economies.

Surgical masks, an early line of defense against the spread of coronavirus, more recently have emerged as a new arena where countries are throwing up export barriers.

Citing reasons involving life and death rather than fears about protectionism, health experts are urging policy makers to let masks flow readily across national borders — with mixed success.

Germany sparked a diplomatic uproar with its neighbors after stopping a Swiss truck carrying 240,000 face masks. Switzerland and Austria are calling on Germany to lift the barriers partly because they both sit on Italy’s northern border, Europe’s virus hot spot.

“Industry and governments must act quickly to boost supply, ease export restrictions and put measures in place to stop speculation and hoarding,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the World Health Organization’s director general, said in a statement last week.

Days later, South Korea, Germany and Russia announced export bans of masks and other protective gear. They joined other nations or territories including India, Taiwan, Thailand and Kazakhstan that earlier put restrictions in place. The novel coronavirus has now spread to more than 113,000 cases globally and killed more than 3,900 people.

As Bloomberg News is reporting Tuesday, a global mask shortage may be about to get much worse.

“Everyone throwing up export bans isn’t going to solve the problem of how you will get the products in time to serve these acute needs,” Stephen Morrison, director of the Global Health Policy Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Before the epidemic, China produced about half of the world’s output of masks with daily production of about 20 million units, according to state media Xinhua.

The Trump administration last week granted exemptions from tariffs for a range of medical products imported from China, including face masks and medical gloves. It also comes at the same time as some White House officials are pushing to stockpile American supplies and shift supply chains out of China.

The U.S only has about 1% of the 3.5 billion masks it needs to combat a serious outbreak, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar has said. The country plans to buy 500 million surgical masks and respirators for the national stockpile.