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US lawmakers seek to lower China's dominance of important mineral supplies

The chair and top Democrat on the Home choose committee on China will reveal Tuesday they are releasing a bipartisan working group to decrease China's supremacy of crucial mineral supply chains.

Agent John Moolenaar, the committee chair, and Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top Democrat, said the brand-new working group will help propose policies to lower U.S. reliance on China for crucial minerals used in a range of items from semiconductors and wind turbines to electric vehicles.

The group will work to develop transparency into U.S. supply-chain dependence for important minerals and establish a. plan of investments, regulative reforms, and tax rewards. to reduce that reliance, the committee stated in a statement to. .

The Critical Minerals Policy Working Group will be led by. Republican Representative Rob Wittman and Democratic. Representative Kathy Castor.

Crucial minerals are the foundation of everything. from standard durable goods to sophisticated military innovation. America's reliance on the Chinese Communist Party's control of. the crucial mineral supply chain would rapidly become an. existential vulnerability in the event of a dispute, Moolenaar. said in a statement.

He kept in mind China has currently enforced export constraints on. unusual earth aspects such as gallium, germanium and graphite, as. well as mineral-processing equipment.

Last month, the U.S. Treasury Department gave car manufacturers. extra flexibility on battery-mineral requirements for. electric-vehicle tax credits on some essential trace element from. China, such as graphite. Congress passed legislation in 2022. targeted at weaning the U.S. EV-battery chain away from China.

New rules worked on Jan. 1 limiting Chinese content. in batteries eligible for EV tax credits of up to $7,500.

The Biden administration last month revealed it prepares to. enforce brand-new tariffs on $18 billion in Chinese products including. electrical cars, batteries, semiconductors, aluminum, vital. minerals, solar cells, ship-to-shore cranes, and medical. products. Tariffs for specific important minerals will increase. from no to 25% later on this year.

(source: Reuters)