Dive Brief:
- The U.S. and Japan have established a plan to deepen cooperation in strengthening critical mineral supply chains, including developing coordinated trade policies and mechanisms to address vulnerabilities.
- The U.S.-Japan Critical Minerals Action Plan, announced on March 19, seeks to develop a plurilateral trade initiative in strategic minerals, supported by border-adjusted price floors.
- “Today’s announcement reinforces our supply chain resilience and energy security with a key partner in the Indo-Pacific region," U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement.
Dive Insight:
Given the crucial role critical minerals play for numerous manufacturing sectors, including automotive, electronics and national defense, the U.S. continues to prioritize international cooperation with allies to ensure adequate supply.
The action plan with Japan builds on a critical minerals framework signed last October by U.S. President Donald Trump and Japan Prime Minister Sanae Kataichi. The nonbinding framework outlined a strategic plan for investments and policies focused on building resilient, secure networks for mining, ore separation and processing.
Under the new U.S.-Japan roadmap, both countries will now engage other nations to discuss border-adjusted price floors, initially focusing on select critical minerals, per the action plan. The two countries did not detail what these select minerals would be.
The U.S. and Japan will also work to maintain and strengthen the competitiveness of industries that process and refine raw critical minerals, as well as manufacturers that use the materials to make products.
Additional provisions for the proposed plurilateral trade agreement include establishing a critical minerals marketplace among participating countries, setting standards for mining, processing and trade, and promoting technical and regulatory cooperation.
Beyond these provisions, negotiation goals also cover coordinated stockpiling, geological mapping, measures to counter economic coercion, and research and development of critical minerals technologies. The plan did not provide a timetable for achieving its goals.
The U.S. has pursued similar critical mineral efforts with other trading partners and allies.
In February, the U.S. reached a combined agreement with the European Union and Japan and a separate pact with Mexico to cooperate on securing critical minerals used in industries ranging from automobiles and clean energy to defense and consumer electronics.
The countries agreed to work toward co-developing methods for mining, processing and stockpiling critical minerals. In the EU-Japan pact, the bloc and the U.S. also committed to finalize within 30 days a memorandum of understanding to identify and support projects in mining, refining, processing and recycling strategic minerals.
Additionally, in January, Trump issued a proclamation instructing cabinet members to pursue trade agreement negotiations to protect national security by ensuring an adequate supply of critical minerals and mitigating vulnerabilities as quickly as possible.
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