在冠状病毒的努力下，口罩成为新的欧盟硬通货

In the middle of the fight against the deadly corona virus, an open dispute over the supply of protective masks has flared up between Switzerland and Germany. According to a report by the NZZ am Sonntag, Germany is preventing the masks from being exported to Switzerland. According to the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (Seco), the Confederation therefore invited the German ambassador to protest against the export ban. “In these contacts, the German authorities were urged to release the blocked programs immediately,” Seco spokesman Fabian Maienfisch is quoted as saying. According to the report, a truck belonging to a Swiss company is being prevented from traveling to Switzerland by German customs authorities. There are 240,000 protective masks on board. The Seco points out that this is not a single case and that further transports are blocked. The German government last Wednesday issued an export ban for medical protective equipment such as safety glasses, respiratory masks, protective coats, protective suits and gloves. The day before, the French government ordered the confiscation of all protective masks. Switzerland is hit hard by these measures because the country itself hardly produces any medical consumables.