April 22 (Reuters) – U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has told American allies they must pay more for critical minerals sourced from outside China, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.
U.S. allies must be ready to pay a “national security premium” for the minerals, which would be sourced from within a proposed group of trading partners including Europe, Greer told the FT in an interview.
“There is a premium we pay, and I call it the national security premium, and we will all pay a national security premium to have a secure supply chain,” Greer said in the interview.
Greer, who has been drawing up a draft of specific details to share with partners, said he blamed countries’ fixation on business costs for Western reliance on China for key minerals.
“When trading partners express concerns about the economic cost of price floors or mechanisms, I just say: what you’re talking about, which is cost efficiency, this is why we are in the situation we’re in,” Greer said.
Greer has earlier said that there needs to be some kind of price mechanism on rare earth minerals.
The U.S. has been trying to get access to critical mineral reserves, especially rare earth supply chains currently dominated by Chinese players.
(Reporting by Chandni Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Muralikumar Anantharaman)
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