Another job done: Trump issues executive order for sovereign critical minerals supply chain

President Trump has declared a “national emergency” to deal with the “threat” of America’s dependence on Communist China for critical minerals vital to the nation’s high-tech economy.

In a September 30 executive order, the president determined that America’s “undue reliance on critical minerals, in processed or unprocessed form, from foreign adversaries constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat … to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.”

Because of that threat he declared the national emergency and directed concrete policies to mitigate the threat and establishing a sovereign self-sufficiency in those minerals.

Critical minerals are categorized as being vital to the well-being of the nation’s economy and defense. The federal government has identified 23 minerals as “critical” for America’s continuation as the world’s technological superpower. They include beryllium, cobalt, gallium, graphite, lithium, platinum-group metals, rare earth elements, titanium, and even tin.

The Center for Security Policy has highlighted the problem of America’s foreign dependence on critical minerals since June. Senior Fellow Yechezkel Moskowitz authored an important article, “Breaking free from China: A three-part plan for American critical materials sovereignty” that outlined the concerns that the President expressed in his executive order.

Breakout from the pro-China establishment

The executive order represents a dramatic breakout from the bipartisan pro-Chinese Communist Party establishment that pushed the policies that helped make the US dependent on Beijing in the first place.

In Congress, 21 Republican lawmakers, including House Freedom Caucus leader Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), renewed a push for domestic production of critical minerals to un-do Obama-era policies that forbade mining on federal land.

“That action was followed by an April 24 letter to the Trump administration from Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), and co-signed by Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR), Cory Gardner (R-CO), Martha McSally (R-AZ), and Mike Enzi and John Barrasso (R-WY),” Moskowitz noted in his article.

“The senators called on Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Secretary of Interior David Bernhardt to support the development of a fully domestic rare earth supply chain, as called for in the Presidential Executive Order on a Federal Strategy to Ensure Secure and Reliable Supplies of Critical Minerals of December 2017,” Moskowitz said.

The Department of the Interior has historical precedent and a mandate to lead the charge on this issue. Rather than re-invent the wheel or create unnecessary new bureaucracies, the Trump administration is directing agencies like Interior to bring back the glory days of American innovation and enterprise.

A priority project for the Center for Security Policy

The Center for Security Policy briefed senior US officials in the Department of Interior and the White House about critical issues for national security, and suggested specific options to correct the problem quickly and efficiently. Moskowitz and Dr. J. Michael Waller, the Center’s Senior Analyst for Strategy, conducted the briefings with outside critical minerals scientists and engineers.

The Center’s June 17 webinar, “Strategic Minerals: Breaking the Chinese Supply Chain to Restore American Sovereignty,” featured an hour-long discussion of the problem and solutions. Moskowitz and Waller joined Pete Rozelle of the Pennsylvania State University Center for Critical Minerals, and Daniel McGroarty, a principal with the Carmot Strategic Group and an Adjunct Professor at the George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management.

Breaking Communist China’s chokehold on American critical minerals is an element of the Center’s 2020 National Security Voter Guide.

The Center has proposed a modernized revival of the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Mines to secure the raw materials for America’s high-tech supply chain. “The Trump administration, with the Secretary of Interior as the point man, can act on delegated authorities and boost the industry while it can,” Moskowitz wrote earlier this month, “a big win for America in 2020.”

Trump recognizes Department of the Interior’s national security role

In his executive order, President Trump identifies the Department of the Interior as having a critical national security function.

Trump said that he “required the Secretary of the Interior to identify critical minerals and made it the policy of the Federal Government ‘to reduce the Nation’s vulnerability to disruptions in the supply of critical minerals.'”

“Pursuant to my order, the Secretary of the Interior conducted a review with the assistance of other executive departments and agencies (agencies) that identified 35 minerals that (1) are ‘essential to the economic and national security of the United States,’ (2) have supply chains that are ‘vulnerable to disruption,’ and (3) serve ‘an essential function in the manufacturing of a product, the absence of which would have significant consequences for our economy or our national security,'” Trump said.

“For these and other critical minerals identified by the Secretary of the Interior, we must reduce our vulnerability to adverse foreign government action, natural disaster, or other supply disruptions. Our national security, foreign policy, and economy require a consistent supply of each of these minerals,” the president said.

America’s vulnerability is outlined

The nation’s vulnerability to dependence on China is severe. “These critical minerals are necessary inputs for the products our military, national infrastructure, and economy depend on the most,” Trump said in his executive order. Key points:

“Our country needs critical minerals to make airplanes, computers, cell phones, electricity generation and transmission systems, and advanced electronics.”
“Though these minerals are indispensable to our country, we presently lack the capacity to produce them in processed form in the quantities we need.”
“American producers depend on foreign countries to supply and process them. For 31 of the 35 critical minerals, the United States imports more than half of its annual consumption.”
“The United States has no domestic production for 14 of the critical minerals and is completely dependent on imports to supply its demand.”
“Whereas the United States recognizes the continued importance of cooperation on supply chain issues with international partners and allies, in many cases, the aggressive economic practices of certain non-market foreign producers of critical minerals have destroyed vital mining and manufacturing jobs in the United States.”

China is our Achilles’ Heel

While critical minerals are found worldwide, Beijing has dominated the mining and processing sectors on nearly all continents.

“Our dependence on one country, the People’s Republic of China (China), for multiple critical minerals is particularly concerning,” Trump said.

“The United States now imports 80 percent of its rare earth elements directly from China, with portions of the remainder indirectly sourced from China through other countries. In the 1980s, the United States produced more of these elements than any other country in the world, but China used aggressive economic practices to strategically flood the global market for rare earth elements and displace its competitors,” the president said.

“Since gaining this advantage, China has exploited its position in the rare earth elements market by coercing industries that rely on these elements to locate their facilities, intellectual property, and technology in China,” Trump continued in his executive order. “For instance, multiple companies were forced to add factory capacity in China after it suspended exports of processed rare earth elements to Japan in 2010, threatening that country’s industrial and defense sectors and disrupting rare earth elements prices worldwide.”

Not wasting time

The president directed an inter-agency approach to break US dependence on China and other foreign sources of critical minerals. He is wasting no time and taking no chances. His executive order instructs the agencies to come up with specific solutions in two months or less.