US and EU sign critical minerals plan in push to loosen China’s grip on key materials

The US and the European Union on Friday deepened their coordination on critical minerals as part of a broader push by Western allies to loosen China’s grip on materials crucial to advanced manufacturing.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic signed a memorandum of understanding for a ‌partnership on producing and securing critical minerals.

Rubio did not mention China in his remarks, but said the preliminary agreement with Brussels reflected growing awareness among Western allies of the importance of supply chains and critical minerals for their economic success.

China has used its chokehold on the processing of many minerals as geoeconomic leverage, at times curbing exports, suppressing prices and undercutting other countries’ ability to diversify sources of the materials used to make semiconductors, electric vehicles and advanced weapons.

“The overconcentration of these resources, the fact that they’re dominated by ⁠one or two places, is an unacceptable risk. We need diversity in our supply chains,” Rubio said before signing the memorandum.

US Trade Representative Jamieson ‌Greer, who will meet with Sefcovic separately on Friday, announced a separate action plan to coordinate trade policies on critical minerals to address what they called “the non-market policies and practices that have distorted critical minerals supply chains”.