The US is pursuing deals with allies to shore up critical mineral arsenals and blunt China’s ability to disrupt global supply chains.
Washington’s talks with Japan, Mexico, and the EU — days after US President Donald Trump announced a $12 billion critical mineral stockpile — focus on implementing price floors for rare earths, to counter Beijing’s pricing power and political leverage stemming from its dominance in mineral processing.
The US secretary of state on Wednesday urged collective action to address “dangerously concentrated” supply chains, a rare case of the Trump administration pushing for multilateralism.
Trump will want the agreements before his April visit to China to signal that Beijing’s leverage is evaporating against a united front, a China expert wrote.
