Request for Comments on the Design of a Plurilateral Agreement on Trade in Critical Minerals and Policy Actions To Strengthen the Resilience of Critical Mineral Supply Chains

USTR invites comments from interested parties to inform the development of trade policy that supports and enhances the resilience of critical mineral supply chains and downstream industries that depend on them. The intended means of achieving that resilience are the generation of demand for market-based production and the acceleration of the buildout of market-based supply. More specifically, USTR seeks public comment on trade policies necessary to increase the domestic availability of mined, refined, and processed critical minerals; incentivize reshoring of the mining, processing, refining and production of critical minerals and their derivatives; and diversify the sources of mined, refined, and processed critical minerals and their derivatives among like-minded trading partners. In particular, comment is sought on the commitments necessary to establish a resilient and non-distorted marketplace among aligned trading partners, including in the context of a legally binding plurilateral agreement. USTR anticipates that such an agreement will include a commitment by all parties to implement minimum prices or other price mechanisms, with appropriate border measures, to ensure secure and fairly-priced markets among the parties to the agreement, in order to generate demand for critical minerals produced for market-based investments. USTR seeks comment in particular on appropriate price mechanisms that would enable investment and appropriate financial returns in the mining, processing, and refining of critical minerals. In addition, USTR seeks comment on efforts to accelerate the buildout of market-based supply, such as efforts to ensure that scrap metal flows into additional domestic production and that policies and practices abroad do not undermine investment at home.