WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is using a Korean War-era law to redirect to the United States surgical masks manufactured by 3M in other countries as part of a heated pressure campaign to force the Minnesota company to cut off sales of surgical masks abroad.

The policy is a significant expansion of the American government’s reach and a reversal of President Trump’s hesitant use of the Defense Production Act, which allows the administration to force a company to prioritize the U.S. government over competing orders.

But in this case, the administration is invoking the law to compel 3M to send to the United States masks made in factories overseas and to stop exporting masks the company manufactures in the United States. Those moves, some trade and legal experts fear, could backfire and prompt foreign governments to clamp down on desperately needed medical necessities destined for the United States.

On Friday evening, the Trump administration issued an executive order directing federal emergency management and health officials to use the law’s authority to preserve respirators, surgical masks and surgical gloves for domestic use.