The Trump administration is seeking to form a critical minerals "preferential trade zone" with allied nations that will seek to push back on efforts to flood domestic markets with heavily subsidized products, Vice President JD Vance announced Wednesday.
While not mentioned by name, China loomed large over Wednesday's gathering as the world's largest producer of critical minerals.
Addressing delegations from over 50 nations, Vance said the US is seeking to build consensus to form the group "to eliminate that problem of people flooding into our markets with cheap critical minerals to undercut our domestic manufacturers," a likely reference to Chinese trade practices that have repeatedly been criticized by the US and allied nations.
"The Trump administration is proposing a concrete mechanism to return the global critical minerals market to a healthier, more competitive state, a preferential trade zone for critical minerals protected from external disruptions through enforceable price floors," Vance said at a ministerial meeting in Washington.
"We will establish reference prices for critical minerals at each stage of production, pricing that reflects real-world fair market value, and for members of the preferential zone, these reference prices will operate as a floor maintained through adjustable tariffs to uphold pricing integrity," he added.
