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Xinmei Shen

Khushboo Razdan

The White House’s top trade official has accused Beijing of “weaponising” its dominance in critical minerals, pledging that the US will use pricing, tariffs, and industrial policy to ensure its entire critical minerals supply chain is in the hands of America and its allies.
Speaking at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington on Tuesday, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the US needed to mine, process and refine critical minerals, and called on its allies to do the same to “break those chokepoints”.
“We need to be capable of building and taking care of ourselves and making sure our allies are building and capable so that we can trust our supply chains,” he said.
“We’re going to set pricing policy. We’re going to set tariff policy. We’re going to create industrial policy.”
Lutnick accused China of dominating various industries through “dumping” – by producing huge amounts of raw materials and then selling finished goods at below market price.
He also accused the previous administration of Joe Biden of “sleeping” as China opened new coal plants and pushed the US towards production of electric vehicles – which the US did not need – while shutting down domestic coal and oil projects.
In addition, he warned against American dependence on Taiwan for the world’s most advanced semiconductors. “You can’t have all semiconductor manufacturing 80 miles from China. That’s just illogical, right? So we need to bring it back.”


The address came as the US prepared to host its inaugural Critical Minerals Ministerial, a gathering attended by delegations from more than 50 nations – including India, Malaysia and South Korea – to “strengthen and diversify critical minerals supply chains”.
The US wants the countries to sign up to a framework calling for financing of new mines and processing projects and government-backed price floors for production.
US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told the CSIS event that the administration planned to announce up to 11 new critical minerals agreements this week, building on last year’s coalition with Australia, Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia.
Burgum said the agreements would include tariff-free trade exchanges for critical minerals among these countries, and in some cases “price floors” that could attract long-term capital to encourage private sector investment in mining and refining.
The European Union is prepared to sign a memorandum of understanding with the US to establish a partnership that would look for ways to source critical minerals without relying on China, according to Bloomberg.
Also speaking at the CSIS event, Jacob Helberg, undersecretary of state for economic affairs, said the US “stands ready” to help its allies gain the tools – such as foreign investment screening – needed to “secure the supply chain together”.
“We want our supply chains to be secure, and that means that … we don’t want to create partnerships where the logistical corridors that we are going to rely on for our companies are basically going to be at the behest of a foreign military,” Helberg said.
A day earlier, the administration of US President Donald Trump announced Project Vault, a US$12 billion public-private initiative to build a stockpile of critical minerals for American businesses.
The project, anchored by a US$10 billion, 15-year loan from the US Export-Import Bank, would shield US manufacturers from supply chain disruptions, Trump said. Companies including General Motors, Clarios, Stellantis, Boeing, Corning, GE Vernova and Alphabet’s Google, would contribute nearly US$1.67 billion in private capital.
While Project Vault was valuable as a long-term mechanism to manage volatility, it was “not a quick fix for the US’ or allies’ current critical mineral shortfalls”, said Cory Combs, head of climate, energy, and supply chain research at consultancy Trivium China.
“As much as this stockpiling effort is laudable, the credit has to be tempered with the fact that it comes so late in the game the US has decided to play,” Combs said.
“True strategic foresight would have seen the creation of a mechanism like this before actions that predictably provoked Chinese [rare earths] and other export controls.”


China accounts for nearly 70 per cent of the world’s production of rare earths, and its use of rare earth export controls last year to hit back at US tariffs alarmed Washington.
Trump last month signed a proclamation that gave Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer 180 days to negotiate new or expanded agreements with allies and trade partners to “adjust imports” of processed critical minerals and their derivative products.
In the order, Trump said that as of 2024, the US was completely reliant on imports for 12 critical minerals, and 50 per cent dependent on imports for another 29. Even where the US had domestic mining capacity, such as cobalt, nickel and rare earths, it lacked the domestic processing capacity, he said.
Combs said the US would have to do three things to diversify the critical minerals supply chain: support company-level development, stockpile supplies and develop “ex-China” markets that were export-controlled or at risk.
While the US had provided “selective supports” in the first two areas, the third “remains a critical gap”, he said.


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Top US trade official spells out plan to break China’s grip on critical minerals

US officials (from left) Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, President Donald Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick are using various methods to try to reduce American dependence on China’s critical minerals supplies. Photo: AP

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Howard Lutnick accuses China of dumping and weaponising supply chains as White House tries to rally allies to its cause


Howard Lutnick accuses China of dumping and weaponising supply chains as White House tries to rally allies to its cause.


Top US trade official spells out plan to break China’s grip on critical minerals

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Howard Lutnick accuses China of dumping and weaponising supply chains as White House tries to rally allies to its cause

Howard Lutnick accuses China of dumping and weaponising supply chains as White House tries to rally allies to its cause