Today, Secretary of the Treasury Scott K.H. Bessent, convened a meeting of Finance Ministers at the United States Treasury to discuss solutions to secure and diversify supply chains for critical minerals, especially rare earth elements. Participants in the Ministerial included Treasurer of Australia, Jim Chalmers; Minister of Finance of Canada, François-Philippe Champagne; European Commissioner for Economy and Productivity and Commissioner for Implementation and Simplification, Valdis Dombrovskis; Minister of the Economy, Finance, and Energy of France, Roland Lescure; Vice Chancellor and Federal Minister of Finance of Germany, Lars Klingbeil; Union Minister for Railway, Information & Broadcasting, Electronics & Information Technology of India, Ashwini Vaishnaw; Minister of Economy and Finance of Italy, Giancarlo Giorgetti; Minister of Finance of Japan, Satsuki Katayama; Secretary of Finance and Public Credit of Mexico, Edgar Amador Zamora; Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance of the Republic of Korea, Yun-Cheol Koo; and Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom, Rachel Reeves. U.S. Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer; President and Chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, John Jovanovic; and JP Morgan Managing Director, Jay Horine also presented on key areas of focus.
Throughout the course of discussions, attendees expressed a strong, shared desire to quickly address key vulnerabilities in critical minerals supply chains. The United States highlighted actions and investments it has already undertaken, as well as planned steps to create resilient, secure, and diversified critical minerals supply chains.
Secretary Bessent expressed his optimism that nations will pursue prudent derisking over decoupling, and that they understand well the need to remedy current deficiencies in critical minerals supply chains. Noting that these supply chains have also become highly concentrated and vulnerable to disruption and manipulation, the Secretary urged attendees to increase their supply chain resiliency, and thanked attendees for their willingness to both learn from and work quickly with each other towards decisive action and lasting solutions.