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The Trump administration said it wants to build a critical minerals trading bloc with allies and partners, framing the effort as a way to keep rare-earth and other key inputs available for U.S. industries. Vice President JD Vance told participants that the U.S.-China trade dispute exposed how dependent many countries are on critical minerals China largely dominates, and he said collective action is needed to give the West self-reliance.
Vance made the argument at a Feb. 4 meeting in Washington hosted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, with officials from several dozen European, Asian and African nations attending. Vance said the goal for the proposed trading bloc is to “guarantee American access to American industrial might,” while also expanding production across a wider zone.
Rubio said the meeting is intended to lead to “action,” rather than further talk. In remarks at the opening, Rubio said, “Everyone here has a role to play,” adding that the administration hopes the gathering will lead to “not just more gatherings, but action,” according to the report.
Administration officials described the bloc as one part of a broader strategy to counter what they say are China’s tightened rare-earth restrictions during the trade war. They said the plan is designed to move beyond complaint about access to critical minerals toward solving it, and Vance said some countries have already signed on. Vance said prices within the preferential trade zone would remain consistent over time and called for “diverse centers of production, stable investment conditions and supply chains that are immune to the kind of external disruptions” that had been discussed in the meeting.
In Beijing, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian responded when asked about the trading bloc. Lin Jian said, “we oppose any country undermining the international economic and trade order through rules set by small cliques.”
The report also described the administration’s view of how the bloc would work in practice, including efforts to reduce side purchases of cheaper Chinese materials. Ian Lange, an economics professor focusing on rare earths at the Colorado School of Mines, said the challenge is ensuring member compliance. “Let’s just say it’s standard economics or standard behavior. If I can cheat and get away with it, I will,” Lange said, adding that the Pentagon can enforce sourcing for defense contractors but it may be harder for electric vehicle makers and other manufacturers.
Alongside the bloc proposal, the Trump administration said it is turning to a strategic stockpile and additional investment to boost supplies of rare earth elements. The administration announced Project Vault as a plan for a strategic U.S. stockpile, to be funded with a $10 billion loan from the U.S. Export-Import Bank and nearly $1.67 billion in private capital. It also said the government recently made its fourth direct investment in an American critical minerals producer, extending $1.6 billion to USA Rare Earth in exchange for stock and a repayment deal, and it cited roughly $5 billion in Pentagon spending over the past year to spur mining.
The meeting took place amid wider tensions between Washington and major allies, with the report citing frustrations with the administration’s rhetoric toward partners and disputes over issues including Greenland and moves to exert control over Venezuela and other nations. It also said Greenland’s oversight state, Denmark, was present among NATO allies, while the NATO ally did not attend.
Regional and partner voices were also part of the meeting’s public messaging. Japan’s minister of state for foreign affairs, Iwao Horii, said Tokyo was “fully on board” with the U.S. initiative and would work with as many countries as possible. Heidi Crebo-Rediker, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, called the meeting “the most ambitious multilateral gathering of the Trump administration,” and said that securing supply chains for defense and commercial industries requires “trusted partners.”
The report said agreements announced in parallel included commitments from the European Union and Japan and from Mexico to work with the United States on coordinated trade policies and price floors aimed at supporting development of a critical minerals supply chain outside China. It also said the Republican-controlled House approved a bill to accelerate mining on federal land, sending it next to the Senate after Democrats and conservation groups objected that it would amount to a blank check for foreign-owned mining corporations.