Draft proposal outlines strategy to enhance resilience and counter non-market practices.
The leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) have provisionally agreed on a strategy to bolster the resilience of critical mineral supply chains, according to media reports. A draft statement seen by Reuters emphasizes diversification, increased investment, and the need for markets to reflect the true costs of responsible extraction, processing, and trade.
Although the draft does not explicitly name China, it emphasizes the economic risks posed by non-market policies and practices in the sector, describing them as a “threat to our economies.”
China dominates many critical mineral supply chains, particularly in the processing stages, leaving other countries highly dependent on its exports. This reliance was highlighted in April, when Beijing imposed export restrictions on a range of rare earth elements and related products, a move widely seen as retaliation against newly imposed U.S. trade tariffs. It followed similar actions in 2023, when China restricted exports of the critical metals gallium and germanium.
While the G7 has launched various initiatives on critical minerals in recent years, these efforts remain limited in scale and fall short of meaningfully challenging China’s dominance, according to the U.S. think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). In 2023 alone, China invested more than $16 billion in overseas mining projects, compared to the G7’s collective commitment of just $13 billion to critical mineral initiatives. CSIS also notes that China maintains a strategic advantage by controlling the entire value chain, from extraction and processing to the production of finished goods, whereas G7 efforts tend to focus on isolated segments of the supply chain.
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