Dive Brief:
- President Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered an official investigation into how imports of critical minerals “and their derivative products” could affect national security.
- The Commerce Department will be required to conduct a section 232 review assessing the existing supply, demand, pricing and use of critical minerals, and whether to recommend import restrictions, tariffs, domestic production incentives or other policies.
- The Secretary of Commerce must “proceed expeditiously” with the investigation, and has 180 days to submit a final report to the president, along with recommendations, per the executive order.
Dive Insight:
Critical minerals are essential to production in several sectors, including weapons, automotive, aerospace and communications technology, yet the U.S. depends heavily on imports for the raw materials.
Lithium, for example, is heavily used in the lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles. But a 2023 report from the International Energy Agency found nearly half of planned global lithium refining operations are in China. As a result, shoring up supply of rare earths has been a bipartisan priority recently, with presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump each taking several actions to invest in domestic production.
“President Trump recognizes that an overreliance on foreign critical minerals and their derivative products could jeopardize U.S. defense capabilities, infrastructure development, and technological innovation,” according to a White House fact sheet on the critical mineral review.
Tuesday’s action also concludes the list of additional investigations the Trump administration said it had planned in its official trade policy review, which was delivered to the president on April 1.
“Reshoring industrial production in key sectors is critical to national security,” a White House summary of the trade policy review said, “and DOC identified additional products and sectors that merit consideration for initiation of new Section 232 investigations, including pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, and certain critical minerals.”
Earlier this week, federal register notices revealed the Commerce Department had already begun reviews of pharmaceuticals and semiconductor imports.
The Trump administration has previously used similar investigations as a way to justify sector-specific tariffs for national security reasons.
Existing steel, aluminum and automotive industry tariffs are currently in place as a result of finished section 232 investigations. Earlier this year, the president also ordered reviews of copper and wood supply chains.
