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WASHINGTON — A battle is shaping up between Donald Trump’s White House and one of the world’s largest manufacturers of protective medical gear — and Canada’s supply of surgical masks, a mission-critical tool in the fight against COVID-19, is hanging in the balance.

Minnesota-based 3M says the Trump administration is trying to prevent it from exporting its N95 respirators, the high-grade facemasks that are in high demand and dwindling supply around the world as health professionals, and now members of the North American public, try to defend themselves against the novel coronavirus.

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The company, which calls itself a critical supplier of the masks around the world, says there would be “significant humanitarian implications” to acceding to the U.S. demand to limit exports to Canada and Latin America.

“In addition, ceasing all export of respirators produced in the United States would likely cause other countries to retaliate and do the same, as some have already done,” 3M said in a statement Friday.

“If that were to occur, the net number of respirators being made available to the United States would actually decrease. That is the opposite of what we and the administration, on behalf of the American people, both seek.”