Masks ordered in China by France are being bought back by Americans on the tarmac of Chinese airports from which the delivery planes are due to depart, which then head for the United States instead of France, the President of the Grand Est region, Jean Rottner, regretted on Wednesday.
"It's complicated, we're fighting 24 hours a day" to get the masks delivered, Jean Rottner told RTL. "I myself have a small unit at regional level that is working flat out with the sponsors to win these contracts. And indeed, on the tarmac, the Americans come up with the cash and pay three or four times the orders we have placed, so we really have to fight. And I was very happy to see this aircraft arrive here last night", he added.
The President of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, Renaud Muselier, has also heard of such a practice by American buyers: at a meeting between the regional presidents, "a regional president explained to us that his order for masks had been stolen from him at the airport itself, by the Americans, who paid three times the price, in cash. But I won't give you the name of the region or the number of masks ordered", said Renaud Muselier.
It's an incredible obstacle course
To collect an order for four million masks, which had been ready since Saturday, the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Region had "finally decided to go through Ceva, the logistics subsidiary of CMA-CGM", a French charter shipping company based in Marseille, explained Mr Muselier. "At least I can be sure that nobody is going to buy them from me on the tarmac. Normally, they're on the way to the airport. But I'm still as cautious as a Sioux, it's an incredible obstacle course" from a logistical point of view, he noted.
Two million surgical masks ordered from China by the Grand Est region were delivered to Basel-Mulhouse airport on Tuesday night. Jean Rottner, himself an emergency doctor, ordered a total of five million masks, financed by the regional budget. The Grand Est was the first region to receive its own order of masks, in addition to national orders.
Emmanuel Macron, who has been criticised for the shortage of masks in France, promised "full independence" for mask production by the end of the year during a visit to a manufacturing plant in Anjou on Tuesday.
The United States, which has been slow to take measures to halt the spread of the coronavirus on its territory, is also looking for masks.
source: https://www.vosgesmatin.fr/
FR 
EN 
DE