Reference News, February 7 report. According to Reuters, on February 4, the United States, the European Union and Japan announced the establishment of a partnership aimed at enhancing the resilience of critical mineral supply chains and looking toward broader trade agreements with partners, which may include minimum price adjustments at borders and price difference subsidies.

In a joint statement, they said that the United States and the European Union committed to reaching a memorandum of understanding on critical minerals within a 30-day urgent deadline.

According to Efe News Agency, on February 4, the United States and the EU announced their first action plan for cooperation in the supply of key raw materials.

The agreement was negotiated by U.S. Trade Representative Jamison Grier and EU Commissioner Maros Sefcovic, who is responsible for trade affairs, with Japan also participating.

Grier stated in a statement that this announcement is "an important signal that major market economies around the world are committed to establishing a new model of preferential trade in critical minerals."

The EU detailed that the agreement includes both sides' commitment to reach a memorandum of understanding on raw materials within 30 days to strengthen the security of the critical mineral supply chain.

The U.S. stated that under the framework of the action plan, it will work with the European Commission and Japan to develop coordinated trade policies and mechanisms.

This move aims to ensure that partner countries do not hinder each other, for example, when seeking supplies from the same supplier, and to cooperate in areas such as supported projects, demand and price management, and particularly in the recycling and alternative technologies of critical raw materials.

Critical minerals, such as aluminum, lithium or zinc, are essential for manufacturing semiconductors, next-generation batteries and many technology products that the U.S. considers vital to its economy and national security.

According to the German newspaper Handelsblatt, on February 4, the U.S. reported that it is advancing its plan to build an international alliance to counter the dominance of a single country in the field of key raw materials, and is relying on the means of state-guaranteed minimum prices in this regard. On February 4, U.S. Vice President Vance introduced the proposal to ministers from 50 countries in Washington.

The public objective of the U.S. proposal is to establish a trade bloc to reduce dependence on a single country for key raw materials in high-tech manufacturing.

Vance proposed setting reference prices for each stage of mining and refining of critical minerals, and said these prices would reflect fair market value, acting as a minimum price guaranteed by flexible tariff mechanisms within the alliance. Vance said, "We want to address the issue of someone flooding our market with cheap critical minerals."

U.S. Secretary of State Rubio said that 55 countries participated in the meeting held in Washington, including South Korea, India, Japan, Australia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

At the meeting, U.S. Trade Representative Jamison Grier announced that the U.S., the EU and Japan had agreed to launch a trilateral cooperation and a bilateral plan with Mexico. He said this was to strengthen the supply chain of critical minerals and lay the foundation for broader agreements with more allies.

These partners plan to study measures such as price floors, market standards, subsidies and procurement guarantees to promote the mining and refining of critical raw materials. In addition, the U.S., the EU and Japan announced that they intend to continue promoting this issue on other international platforms such as the G7 and the "Mineral Security Partnership." (Translated by Wang Qing, Ma Xiaoyun, Yang Xinpeng, Su Jiawei)

Original: toutiao.com/article/7603976025508151859/

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