United States, European Union Expand Partnership On Critical Minerals

The U.S. government and the European Union (EU) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) last week that is aimed at boosting their supplies of critical minerals. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič signed the MOU on April 24.

As Euronews explained, the agreement is meant to counter China’s dominance in critical minerals production. “The overconcentration of these resources, the fact that they’re dominated by one or two places, is an unacceptable risk,” Secretary Rubio said. The two governments agreed to explore ways to coordinate subsidies and stockpiles of critical minerals, coordinate joint standards to ease trade across the Western world, and invest in research.

Also last week: Commissioner Šefčovič and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer agreed to an Action Plan for Critical Minerals Supply Chain Resilience, which paves the way toward a possible plurilateral trade initiative with global partners.

Under the Action Plan, the EU and the United States will work together to explore a broad range of trade policies and instruments to reinforce coordinated international action, including border-adjusted price floors, standards-based markets, price gap subsidies, and offtake agreements. The two governments also will focus on the development of common standards for mining, processing, and recycling; promoting investment; spurring joint research and innovation; creating strategies to stockpile critical minerals; and implementing mechanisms for rapid response to supply disruptions.