Trump signs order on export curbs to retain critical minerals

President Donald Trump signed a measure Thursday that gives officials authority under the Defense Production Act to implement export restrictions on some industrial waste in a bid to retain critical minerals and rare elements contained in those products.

The move is the latest effort by the Trump administration to shore up supplies of critical minerals, which are crucial to producing a range of cutting-edge technologies and products, and to reduce US dependence on China for those elements. 

The presidential determination gives the Commerce secretary authority to institute export restrictions on recoverable critical minerals and materials, or CMMs, according to a White House fact sheet. 

The US holds substantial CMMs in finished products such as magnets and lithium ion batteries. Those minerals and materials can be “reclaimed and recycled” from those goods, according to the White House.

Trump’s proclamation marks his latest use of the Cold War-era Defense Production Act to buttress US supply chains and industry. He’s previously tapped authorities under the law to renew oil production off the southern California coast and to support domestic coal power plants.

The DPA allows presidents to take unilateral actions to bolster US national defense capabilities, including by directing private-sector companies to expand production of critical industrial materials. 

While Trump set the stage for aggressively using the DPA to support American energy and critical minerals development with a declaration his first day in office, he’s far from alone in seizing the statute’s robust authorities. Former President Joe Biden also invoked the law to bolster energy technology, with the aim of boosting domestic production of solar panels, transformers, heat pumps and fuel cells.

Rare earths have gained outsized importance since last year when China placed export controls that rattled US manufacturers. Reopening access to critical minerals and rare earths was a central focus of a broad trade deal the US and China eventually reached that eased tariffs on goods and curbed some export restrictions.

Despite that detente, the Trump administration has moved to secure alternative sources of those minerals.

(By Jennifer A. Dlouhy and Skylar Woodhouse)