Trump plans to stockpile deep-sea metals to counter China; China urges US to follow international law
Authored by: Reuters
The Trump administration is drafting an executive order to enable the stockpiling of deep-sea metals to counter China’s dominance in battery minerals and rare earth supply chains, the Financial Times reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Under the plans, the stockpile would “create large quantities ready and available on U.S. territory to be used in the future”, in case of a conflict with China that might constrain imports of metals and rare earths, the report added.
No country should bypass international laws to authorize resource exploration in the seabed, China’s foreign ministry said on Monday, following a report of U.S. plans to stockpile deep-sea metals to counter China’s dominance in the sector.
Following the report, the Chinese foreign ministry said that under international law, the seabed and its resources “are the common heritage of mankind.”
“Exploration and exploitation of mineral resources in the international seabed area must be conducted in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and within the framework of the International Seabed Authority,” the ministry said in a statement.
Last week, China placed some rare earth elements under export restrictions as part of its response to President Donald Trump’s tariff package, potentially cutting the U.S. off from minerals vital to everything from smartphones to electric car batteries.
The stockpile is being considered as part of a broader push to fast-track deep-sea mining applications under U.S. law, and to create onshore processing capacity, the report added.
China produces around 90 percent of the world’s refined rare earths, a group of 17 elements used across the defense, electric vehicle, clean energy and electronics industries. The U.S. imports most of its rare earths, and most come from China.
(Reporting by Rajveer Singh Pardesi in Bengaluru; Editing by Mark Potter; Reporting by Ethan Wang and Ryan Woo; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
