President Trump secured a one-year reprieve from Beijing’s threat to shut down global rare-earths exports, which would have interrupted manufacturing of semiconductor chips and magnets essential in military and technology applications. The President quipped that “there’s no roadblock at all” and rare earths “will hopefully disappear from our vocabulary for a little while.” 

But the President’s brinkmanship has not diminished the vulnerability of the world’s rare earths supply chains. To strengthen its position in future negotiations with Beijing, Washington can’t eliminate rare earths and critical minerals from its vocabulary. The U.S. must win the rare earths and critical minerals race with China to support our economy and guarantee our national security.

Read more in RealClearEnergy here.

The views and opinions expressed are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of C3.