
Germany Cries Foul over Berlin-Bound Masks Diverted to U.S. - notlukesky
https://www.wsj.com/articles/germany-cries-foul-over-berlin-bound-masks-diverted-to-u-s-11585943440
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Aloha
Interesting, quoting from the article..

3M said it “has no evidence to suggest 3M products have been seized. 3M has no
record of any order of respirators from China for the Berlin police. We cannot
speculate where this report originated.”

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erentz
There is a surge in support for economic nationalism due to this pandemic
citing lack of medical supplies as the reason.

However while if everyone had their own factory meeting their own regular
needs that would mean everyone gets a fairer share at the moment. It wouldn’t
mean everyone gets 100% of their needs, because demand is through the roof.
(Yes there is some scaling up that could be done, but point still stands).

It also doesn’t seem an automatic given that while some industries should be
viewed as critical for security reasons, that _all_ industries must be local.

It seems there’s need for much more nuance to this. Countries need better
cooperative systems for handling such events as part of negotiating trade
treaties. A kind of economic NATO (for a probably terrible analogy).

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geomark
Right. You don't want a standing army to address every potential pandemic or
other catastrophe. You DO want the ability to repurpose and scale up existing
production resources to address face the surprise. You would want to develop
competency in _massive_ scaling rather than just _some_ scaling.

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dogma1138
Kettle meet pot [https://www.thelocal.com/20200309/germany-blocks-
protective-...](https://www.thelocal.com/20200309/germany-blocks-protective-
masks-headed-for-switzerland)

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Simulacra
It’s sort of every country for themselves right now.

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andybak
Is that a normative or descriptive statement?

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Simulacra
Normative.

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pwg
No paywall: [https://archive.is/ejcpk](https://archive.is/ejcpk)

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olliej
It wasn’t diverted, it was stolen. They were goods paid for by Germany, and
then stolen from the plane during a layover.

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sanguy
Source?

The real issue is the contract language used by the EU and the member
governments specify "pay on delivery" in which the receiving agency will not
accept an invoice until the goods are received and inspected as well as 60 to
90 day terms being normal. The EU members are very slow with this acceptance
(2 weeks is not abnormal) and combined with the longer payment terms you are
looking at 10 to 12 weeks to get paid.

In the US the governments will accept contracts "FOB" which means when the
product is ready to ship from the manufacturer the buyer will accept the
invoice. Terms tend to be 30 days but 15 is also possible. Plus you tend to
get paid on time.

So in a global market with demand the US will always be a preferred customer.
They will pay, on average, 6 to 8 weeks faster.

Cash is king in todays world and the EU needs to get used to this or they are
going to continue to see such challenges.

