“No Realer Thing Than Critical Minerals” — US Proposes Price Floors, Preferential Trade Zone

1. ‘No realer thing than critical minerals’ — Vance

‘And as much as we talk about the modern economy, the digital economy, the high-tech economy, the President said something that was very, very important, and I think should inform a lot of how we think about future growth, which is that as much as data centers and technology and all of these incredible things that we’re all working on matter, fundamentally you still have an economy that runs on real things. And there is no realer thing than oil — and I would add to that there’s no realer thing than critical minerals.’

2. ‘We will establish reference prices for critical minerals’ — Vance

‘So, this morning, the Trump Administration is proposing a concrete mechanism to return the global critical minerals market to a healthier, more competitive state — a preferential trade zone for critical minerals, protected from external disruptions through enforceable price floors. We will establish reference prices for critical minerals at each stage of production, pricing that reflects real-world, fair-market value.

‘And for members of the preferential zone, these reference prices will operate as a floor, maintained through adjustable tariffs to uphold pricing integrity. We want to eliminate that problem of people flooding into our markets with cheap critical minerals to undercut our domestic manufacturers because we know, of course, that as soon as they’ve undercut our domestic makers, they — the domestic markers — they’d leave the market and the people who undercut them then jack up the price to a completely unfair level. We’re going to fix that problem.’

3. ‘We … outsourced our economic security’ — Rubio

‘The United States used to produce its own critical minerals and derivative products like rare earth magnets. Back in 1949, miners in Mountain Pass, California discovered one of the world’s richest mineral deposits. By 1952, the United States, we were mining rare earths there, and that discovery sparked a revolution.

‘American scientists and engineers, alongside innovators from many of the countries that are here today, rushed to discover new applications for these minerals and, with these new technologies, ushered in the jet age, we ushered in the space age, we ushered in the computer age.

‘And then we became blinded, blinded by the potential of the technologies those metals enabled, but we neglected their importance. Mining is less glamorous than building computers. It’s less glamorous than building cars or airplanes. But building computers and cars and airplanes is less glamorous than designing them.

‘As we embraced what was new and glamorous, we outsourced what seemed old and unfashionable. We allowed, for example, Mountain Pass — and with it, most of America’s critical mineral industry — to wither and to die so that we could focus on manufacturing. Then we outsourced the manufacturing.

‘And I know this is a story I’m telling, but it’s a story many of the advanced economies represented here today understand well. We outsourced the manufacturing so we could focus on designing these goods. And then one day we woke up and we realized we had outsourced our economic security and our very future. We were at the mercy of whoever controlled supply chains for these minerals. So my hope is that we are gathered here today as the first but important step to rectifying this mistake, to bring together our collective talent for innovation, when our advantage over rivals — where our advantage over rivals has only grown, and to apply it to bringing back manufacturing and reopening mines here in the United States, but also in all the partner nations represented here today.’

4. ‘Diversity … is what makes us resilient’ — Horii

‘Japan strongly believes that FORGE will become an important venue and a vehicle for us to focus on supply chain diversification and ensure policy coordination. Japan stands ready to actively contribute to discussions to further deepen collaboration with partners and to ensure the effective implementation of this initiative.

‘So how should we move forward from here? On the supply side, diversification is essential. Diversity as opposed to concentration is what makes us resilient. This has to be one of the — our major guiding principles.’

5. ‘Four key initiatives’ — Copley

‘So, four key initiatives — we’re investing, we’re stockpiling, we’re going to protect our mining companies, and we’re fixing our mining ecosystem — because this industry is so important to our national development, as I know it is to your countries as well. But most importantly, under President Trump’s leadership, we are no longer standing around admiring the problem. We’re not spending our time writing 200-page book reports about how important critical minerals are. We have a plan, and we’re focused on project execution — getting deals done, getting companies their permits, stockpiling minerals, and hopefully moving forward with all of you, our international partners, to protect our mining companies and to rebuild global mining in a fair and balanced way.’