China is ramping up production of masks and it seems every other country wants them, so what are Canada’s chances of getting their hands on some of the precious equipment on an ongoing basis?

Experts say the two countries have traditionally maintained a good trade relationship, and that even recent scuffles like the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou in Vancouver in 2018 shouldn’t have much of an impact, if any, on the ability to secure masks.

The demand for masks due to the COVID-19 pandemic has become increasingly more intense, and the United States has sparked further tension with President Donald Trump’s order that masks and other personal protective equipment not be exported.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced over the weekend that Canada was expecting “million of masks” to be transported via cargo plane from China in the next two days.

The ability to secure the number of masks it needs from China is likely to come down to timing and price, said Joy Nott, a partner in KPMG’s trade and customs practice.

“Everybody wants masks, and whoever has the most amount of money wins,” she said. “Does Canada have a good relationship with China? I’d say yes. Should we automatically assume the U.S. will get masks over us? I wouldn’t assume that. I think it’s going to be very competitive.”

If a shipment of masks was secured, Canada should be able to get them relatively quickly, she said, in as little as 24 hours.

Though cases of COVID-19 have been shrinking in China, where the virus first emerged late last year, the country has been ramping up production of masks and says it sold nearly 4 billion masks to other countries since the beginning of March, Agence France-Presse reported.

But some of the countries that have received equipment from China have also complained about poor quality.

Canada also created goodwill when it sent over medical supplies to China when it was dealing with its peak of the pandemic, pointed out Opher Baron, distinguished professor of operations management at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management.

It also doesn’t appear China will be hoarding masks as the U.S. is doing, he said.

“The main difference between the U.S. and China is that the U.S. market is not sufficient enough to provide local supply,” he said. “The Chinese market is. So they are planning to export.”

Nott said with supply low in the world and demand high, prices will quickly climb for masks, though by how much remains unclear.

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She said this situation is a “wake-up call” for the world, where every country should be looking at its national supply — in this instance, its supply of personal protective equipment — and to look at where it’s sourced from.

“I think it teaches us that supply chains need to be more diverse,” she said.

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