The United States and Japan have agreed on a new action plan to deepen cooperation on critical mineral supply chains, in a move aimed at strengthening industrial resilience and reducing strategic vulnerabilities.
Announced on 19 March, the US-Japan Critical Minerals Action Plan lays out a roadmap for closer coordination on trade policy and supply chain protection in sectors seen as essential to manufacturing, energy and national security.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer described the initiative as a step towards reinforcing supply chain resilience and energy security with a key Indo-Pacific partner.
The new action plan builds on a nonbinding framework agreed last October between President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Kataichi. That earlier framework focused on investments and policies to create more secure and resilient supply networks for mining, ore separation and processing.
Under the new roadmap, Washington and Tokyo plan to engage other countries in discussions on a plurilateral trade initiative covering strategic minerals. One of the more notable elements under consideration is the use of border-adjusted price floors, initially for a select group of critical minerals, although the specific materials have not yet been identified.
The two countries also intend to work together to preserve and improve the competitiveness of industries involved in processing and refining raw critical minerals, as well as those that depend on them in manufacturing.
Other goals under the proposed framework include the creation of a shared critical minerals marketplace, common standards for mining, processing and trade, stronger technical and regulatory cooperation, coordinated stockpiling, geological mapping, measures to counter economic coercion and joint research into critical mineral technologies.
No timetable has yet been provided for when those goals will be achieved.
The initiative is part of a broader US push to coordinate with allies on critical minerals. In February, Washington reached a joint agreement with the European Union and Japan, as well as a separate deal with Mexico, to cooperate on securing the raw materials needed across sectors such as automotive, clean energy, defence and consumer electronics.
Those arrangements included commitments to work together on mining, processing and stockpiling, while the EU-Japan-US track also included plans to finalise within 30 days a memorandum of understanding to identify and support projects in mining, refining, processing and recycling strategic minerals.
The current effort also aligns with a January proclamation by Trump directing cabinet members to pursue trade agreements that strengthen national security by ensuring adequate access to critical minerals and reducing supply chain vulnerabilities as quickly as possible.
