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By Austen Hufford and Allison Prang 

3M Co. pushed back against criticism of its work to make more N95 masks, intensifying conflict between the Trump administration and U.S. manufacturers racing to meet urgent demand for medical equipment.

The St. Paul, Minn.-based company said Friday that it had raised domestic mask production, started imports from its plant in China and taken action on reports of price gouging for masks, which medical workers need to treat patients infected with the coronavirus.

But the company said it wouldn't comply with a Trump administration request to stop exporting some of its U.S.-made masks to Canada and Latin America. President Trump on Thursday invoked the Defense Production Act to force 3M to manufacture as many N95 masks as the Federal Emergency Management Agency determines are needed.

"The idea that we're not doing everything we can to maximize deliveries of respirators in our home country, nothing is further from the truth," Chief Executive Mike Roman said on CNBC.

3M is the latest company to draw criticism from President Trump over its efforts to fight the coronavirus pandemic. Health workers across the country are running short on N95 masks -- so-called because they block 95% of very small particles -- as well as face shields, gowns and the ventilators used to treat the sickest patients with Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus.

The president criticized General Motors Co. last month for not working fast enough to make ventilators. GM executives were surprised by the criticism and felt the company was being unfairly targeted, people familiar with their thinking told The Wall Street Journal. The company emphasized the extent of it efforts to administration officials, a person familiar with the matter said, and the president changed his tone changed a couple of days later, saying the auto maker is doing a "fantastic job."

President Trump said in a tweet on Thursday that his administration "hit 3M hard today after seeing what they were doing with their Masks."

3M is the primary U.S. producer of N95 masks, and health workers consider its products the best on the market. Since cases of the coronavirus began to proliferate in China in January, 3M has doubled mask production to nearly 100 million masks a month globally, and 35 million a month in the U.S.

That is the bulk of the U.S. capacity to make about 50 million N95 masks each month, according to industry executives. 3M and other companies including Honeywell International Inc. are working to raise output in the coming weeks. The Department of Health and Human Services estimated in March that the U.S. would need about 300 million N95 masks a month to confront a pandemic.

3M said that it was importing 10 million masks from its factory in China to the U.S. at the administration's request but that it wouldn't stop some exports to Canada and Latin America on humanitarian grounds.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canadian officials spoke to the Trump administration on Friday about maintaining trade in health-care products and services between the two countries.

"It would be a mistake to create blockages or reduce the amount of back-and-forth trade of essential goods and services, including medical goods," he said. "It could end up hurting Americans as much as it hurts anybody else."

--Paul Vieira contributed to this article.

Write to Austen Hufford at austen.hufford@wsj.com and Allison Prang at allison.prang@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 03, 2020 14:40 ET (18:40 GMT)

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