Workers transport soil containing rare earth elements for export at a port in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, China October 31, 2010. REUTERS
(Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered a probe into potential new tariffs on all U.S. critical minerals imports, a major escalation in his dispute with global trade partners and an attempt to push back on industry leader China.
The order lays bare what manufacturers, industry consultants, academics and others have long warned Washington about: that the U.S. is overly reliant on Beijing and others for processed versions of the minerals that power its entire economy.
China is a top global producer of 30 of the 50 minerals considered critical by the U.S. Geological Survey, for example, and has been curtailing exports in recent months.
Trump signed an order directing Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to begin a national security review under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. That is the same law Trump used in his first term to impose 25% global tariffs on steel and aluminum and one he used in February to launch a probe into potential copper tariffs.
U.S. dependency on minerals imports “raises the potential for risks to national security, defense readiness, price stability, and economic prosperity and resilience,” Trump said in the order.
Within 180 days, Lutnick is required to report his findings to the president, including whether to impose tariffs. Were Trump to then impose a tariff on a nation’s critical minerals, the rate would supersede the reciprocal tariffs Trump imposed earlier this month, according to the White House.
The review will assess U.S. vulnerabilities for the processing of all critical minerals – including cobalt, nickel and the 17 rare earths, as well as uranium – how foreign actors could be distorting markets, and what steps could be taken to boost domestic supply and recycling, according to the order.
The U.S. currently extracts and processes scant amounts of lithium, has only one nickel mine but no nickel smelter, and has no cobalt mine or refinery. While it has several copper mines, the U.S. has only two copper smelters and is reliant on other nations to process that key red metal.
The order takes a broad view of processing as all the steps after rock is taken out of the ground and where they are done. It also directs a review of U.S. capabilities to produce so-called semi-finished goods, including battery cathodes and wind turbines.
The move is the latest in Trump’s effort to jumpstart U.S. minerals production and processing. The president last month signed an order directing federal agencies to create a list of U.S. mines that could be quickly approved and federal lands that could be used for minerals processing.
Still, it takes years to build a new mine and processing facility, a timeline that has sparked concern about where the U.S. could procure minerals were tariffs broadly imposed.
“Ultimately the U.S. gets certain minerals from China because there are not alternative supplies elsewhere,” said Gracelin Baskaran, director of the critical minerals security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
‘FULL SCOPE’
Beijing earlier this month placed export restrictions on rare earths in response to Trump’s tariffs, a move that further exacerbated supply concerns amongst Trump officials.
Rare earths are a group of 17 elements used across the defense, electric vehicle, energy and electronics industries. The United States has only one rare earths mine and most of its processed supply comes from China.
The restrictions from China were seen as the latest demonstration of the country’s ability to weaponize its dominance over the mining and processing of critical minerals after it put outright bans on the export of three other metals last year to the U.S. and slapped export controls on others.
Chinese mining companies across the globe have been flooding markets with cheap supplies of many critical minerals in recent years, fueling calls from industry and investors for Washington to support U.S. projects.
The White House also said Trump is focused on closing tariff loopholes. As with other products, the supply chain for critical minerals processing involves multiple countries.
“An effective policy should take into account the full scope of the supply chain to level the global playing field,” said Abigail Hunter, executive director of SAFE’s Center for Critical Minerals Strategy.
Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; additional reporting by Costas Pitas; Editing by Sonali Paul
