President Donald Trump moved to impose negotiated price floors on trade in processed critical minerals and their derivative products by signing a Section 232 proclamation directing the Commerce Secretary and the US Trade Representative to jointly negotiate import-adjustment agreements with trading partners covering PCMDPs from any country.
The proclamation frames the objective as addressing a “threatened impairment of national security” tied to the present quantities and circumstances of PCMDP imports, and it explicitly instructs the administration, working with allies, to “promote the adoption of price floors” in the course of negotiations.
The Commerce Department is tasked with ongoing monitoring, with Secretary Howard Lutnick directed to inform the president of any circumstances that could indicate a need for further Section 232 action on PCMDPs.
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The proclamation also holds open additional presidential action to “adjust imports” and eliminate the cited national security threat if agreements are not entered into within 180 days of the proclamation, if agreements are not being carried out, or if they are deemed ineffective.
READ: Trump Looks To Bring Critical Mineral Processing To US, Considering Price Floors
The fact sheet positions PCMDPs as indispensable across almost every industry, explicitly naming national defense programs and critical infrastructure, and ties the action to building diverse and more resilient supply chains to counter “non-market practices by foreign actors.”
The action follows completion of a Commerce Department Section 232 investigation that found imports of processed critical minerals and derivative products threaten to impair national security.
Despite increasing demand, US critical mineral production has been declining, and weakened domestic production combined with lack of access to secure and reliable supply chains is described as affecting advanced weapons systems, energy infrastructure, and everyday consumer goods.
The move lands as Congress pursues a bipartisan critical-minerals bill to create a $2.5 billion Strategic Resilience Reserve that would buy and stockpile critical minerals to stabilize prices and push domestic mining and refining activity.
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