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Top US trade official spells out plan to break China’s grip on critical minerals
Howard Lutnick accuses China of dumping and weaponising supply chains as White House tries to rally allies to its cause
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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.
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“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.
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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.
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