• CLOSURE: The Baja California state government ordered the temporary suspension of a British-owned medical device facility in the US border city of Tijuana arguing that it had allegedly refused to sell part of its ventilator production for domestic consumption amid the coronavirus pandemic.
• BATTLE: Despite legal questions about the request, Baja California governor Jaime Bonilla said that Smiths Medical -subsidiary of London-based multinational Smiths Group- refused to sell ventilators even when industry officials said the facility only exports components for final assembly in the US.
• ESSENTIAL: “We told them that if they wanted us to consider them an essential (industry), there should have to be a benefit for the people of Baja California…by selling ventilators to us”, said Bonilla reminding there is a national health emergency declaration for nonessential plants to stop production.
• MAQUILADORA: According to industry officials quoted by local media, Smiths Medical is legally prohibited from selling in Mexico given that it’s part the IMMEX program, Mexico’s decades old maquiladora program through which manufacturers import raw materials tax free only to be exported.
