Vice-President JD Vance announced the plans on Wednesday during a meeting of foreign ministers of several dozen countries in Washington, including Poland. The key element of the agreement is the introduction of minimum prices for strategic raw materials.
What are the goals of the international trading bloc proposed by the US?
What does Radosław Sikorski think about the US initiative?
What are the elements of the Critical Minerals Agreement?
What is China's reaction to the United States' initiative?
As Vance explained, establishing such a mechanism is intended to provide companies with greater predictability and security. Thanks to minimum prices, companies can be sure that investments in the extraction and processing of critical minerals will remain profitable even during periods of rapid market fluctuations.
The geopolitical dimension of the US proposal as a response to China's actions
Although neither Vice President JD Vance nor Secretary of State Marco Rubio directly targeted China, their statements clearly suggested that the initiative was a response to the dominant position of one country in the extraction and processing of minerals key to the modern economy – from electronics to the defense industry.
— We want to create a trade bloc between allies and partners that will guarantee Americans access to American industrial power and at the same time increase production throughout the zone. Vance said.
As he added, “Donald Trump's administration is proposing a specific mechanism to return the global market for critical minerals to a healthier and more competitive state – a preferential trade zone for critical minerals, protected from external disruptions through enforceable price floors“. This system is to be additionally supported by appropriate customs duties.
The US proposal is a development of previous initiatives, but for the first time it explicitly assumes guarantees of minimum prices. It is also a reaction to the controls on the export of rare earth metals introduced by China last year and its announcement to suspend their sale to foreign arms companies. Although some of these announcements were later suspended after the trade agreement with the US, they raised serious concerns around the world about the use of raw materials as a tool of political pressure.
Marco Rubio also drew attention to this aspect – without mentioning China. He informed that the Washington forum was attended by 55 countries responsible for approximately two-thirds of global GDP, of which “many” declared their readiness to join the agreement.
At the same time, the United States is strengthening its own raw material resources. On Monday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing a strategic reserve of critical minerals, Project Vault. The US is to allocate USD 10 billion for its construction, which shows that access to key raw materials is becoming one of the priorities of American economic and security policy.
The US wants a trade coalition. There is Radosław Sikorski's answer
The deputy prime minister and head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Radosław Sikorski, responded to such a proposal from the United States and emphasized in his entry on the X platform that this matter certainly requires consideration.
“The United States proposes a global coalition for the security of supplies of critical minerals. Poland, among its closest allies, together with the entire EU, will consider this urgent initiative with the utmost seriousness“- wrote Sikorski.
