President Donald Trump on Wednesday inked an executive order that sets up a process for the U.S. to secure supply chains for critical minerals and mineral-derived products that China currently controls.
The order, according to the White House, is the result of an investigation the Trump administration launched last year to determine whether U.S. imports of processed critical minerals and the finished products that contain those materials should be subject to higher tariffs.
The directive empowers Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to work with other senior executive branch officials to “jointly pursue negotiation of agreements” to address the nation’s vulnerability that results from reliance on other countries for processed critical minerals and their derivative products. Officials are also empowered to weigh the use of price floors under the order.
“In negotiating, the Secretary and the Trade Representative should consider price floors for trade in critical minerals and other trade-restricting measures,” the order states.
