Overview
- G7 talks in Evian on Monday showed European governments oppose using the Pentagon’s DARPA OPEN AI tool as the basis for a Western price-setting scheme because they worry about U.S. control, transparency, and fiscal cost.
- The White House proposal would use price supports, subsidies, guaranteed purchases and adjustable tariffs to raise profits for Western miners and builders of processing capacity so they can compete with China’s low-priced output.
- Washington plans to pivot to binding bilateral agreements with partners such as Japan and the EU before the end of June as a faster route to implement parts of the plan, U.S. officials told reporters.
- Industry is divided: more than 230 submissions to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer show miners, refiners and manufacturers disagree on price-setting versus incentive-based tools like tax credits or direct subsidies.
- Parallel efforts are advancing to reduce China dependence, including the U.S.-India Critical Minerals Security Taskforce that held its inaugural meeting and identified five priority areas such as lithium refining, rare-earth processing and recycling.