The United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and the European Union Commissioner for Trade, Maroš Šefčovič, signed a Memorandum of Understanding this Friday in Washington regarding critical minerals, aiming to diversify global supply chains and reduce dependency on China for these strategic resources.
In the signing ceremony, Rubio warned that "the overconcentration of these resources, the fact that they are dominated by one or two locations, is an unacceptable risk" and emphasized the need for diversity in supply chains.
The agreement, which is non-binding but aims to be operational, covers the entire value chain of critical minerals: extraction, refining, processing, recycling, shared information storage, and research and innovation.
Rubio was emphatic that the memorandum will not remain just on paper. "It's not going to be just a document; it will come to life through concrete actions that will be important for the economic vitality of all our economies," he stated.
The Secretary of State emphasized the combined weight of both powers: "If you look at the purchasing power and economic productivity of the combination of the United States and the European Union, it is extraordinary. Together, we are the largest customers and users in the world."
Rubio specified that the memorandum will be operationalized through the United States Trade Representative and the Department of Commerce, indicating a coordinated implementation at the institutional level.
The agreement directly addresses China's dominance in this sector: the Asian country controls 69.2% of the world's rare earth production and nearly 90% of global processing and refining, a position it has leveraged as a geopolitical tool through successive export restrictions since 2025.
In April 2025, Beijing imposed export controls on seven heavy elements —including dysprosium, terbium, and scandium— in response to the tariffs set by the Trump administration. In October of that same year, it expanded those restrictions to five additional elements, impacting supply chains related to defense.
The memorandum signed this Friday marks the culmination of a diplomatic offensive that the Trump administration began with the Critical Minerals Ministerial Summit on February 4, 2026, where 55 delegations from allied countries gathered—deliberately excluding China—and initiatives such as the Vault Project and the multilateral FORGE forum were launched.
At that summit, Vice President JD Vance warned that "consistent investment is almost impossible as long as prices remain erratic and unpredictable," justifying the need for stabilization mechanisms such as those outlined in the new agreement.
The commercial representative Jamieson Greer has announced similar action plans with Japan and Mexico, aiming to build a broader plurilateral framework among Western allies to counteract Chinese control over future minerals.
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