Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said that Canada will not pay the full price for medical masks that don’t meet medical standards.
The leader had sourced eight million surgical-grade masks from China. The Canadian government had suspended shipments of N95 respirators from a Montreal-based supplier after nearly eight million medical-grade masks were found to be substandard.
“We have been working very, very hard from the very beginning to bring in PPE,” Trudeau was quoted as saying by the Globe and Mail. The masks did not meet verification standards of the Public Health Agency of Canada.
“We will not pay the full price for masks that we will not be able to use,” he added.
The distributor of the masks was not named as discussions regarding reimbursements and discounts were ongoing.
The matter has further hampered relations between Canada and China.
Canada-China relations had been strained after Canada, in December 2018, arrested a senior executive of Huawei at the request of the US for allegedly defrauding multiple financial institutions, and in turn, breaching US-imposed bans on dealing with Iran.
China retaliated to the incident by arresting two Canadians including a diplomat.
Canadian PM Trudeau may have further irked China by openly thanking Taiwan for its “generous donation” of 500,000 masks to Canada.
China does not recognise Taiwan as a separate nation and has been trying to claim Taiwan as part of its territory.
The US, Japan, Canada and a few other nations are seeking observer status for Taiwan at the World Health Organisation, a move strongly opposed by China.
Last month too, Canada had an issue with masks supplied from China. One million masks sent were found to be faulty by Canada’s Public Health Agency.
