3M, which is producing N95 masks badly needed by frontline workers, says the White House asked the company to stop sending masks produced in the US to Canada and Latin America, to keep them for the US market.

According to a statement by 3M “There are, however, significant humanitarian implications of ceasing respirator supplies to healthcare workers in Canada and Latin America, where we are a critical supplier of respirators.”

“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.”

“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.”

As my @CBCNews colleagues reported earlier this week, Canada does not have any domestic production of N95 masks https://www.cbc.ca/news/investigates/canada-searching-masks-international-1.5517276