The US Treasury is elevating critical minerals, especially rare earth elements, from an industrial priority to a finance-minister-level coordination problem as supply chains become more concentrated and more vulnerable to disruption and manipulation.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent convened a Finance Ministerial to discuss solutions to secure and diversify critical minerals supply chains, with rare earths explicitly highlighted as a focus.
The participant list signaled a broad coalition spanning North America, Europe, and the Indo-Pacific. Attendees included Australia’s Treasurer Jim Chalmers, Canada’s Minister of Finance François-Philippe Champagne, and the European Commission’s Valdis Dombrovskis, whose portfolio includes Economy and Productivity, Implementation and Simplification.
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Major European finance ministries were represented by France’s Roland Lescure, Germany’s Lars Klingbeil, Italy’s Giancarlo Giorgetti, and the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, placing critical minerals on the same table as core fiscal and macro coordination.
Asia-Pacific participation included Japan’s Minister of Finance Satsuki Katayama and Korea’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Yun-Cheol Koo, alongside India’s Ashwini Vaishnaw, who holds a multi-ministry brief covering Railways, Information and Broadcasting, and Electronics and Information Technology.
Mexico’s Secretary of Finance and Public Credit Edgar Amador Zamora also participated, expanding the discussion beyond a narrower allies-only format and emphasizing cross-border supply chain exposure.
Presentations were delivered by US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Export-Import Bank of the United States President and Chairman John Jovanovic, and JP Morgan Managing Director Jay Horine, indicating the agenda bridged trade tools, official financing capacity, and private capital perspectives.
Attendees expressed a strong, shared desire to quickly address key vulnerabilities in critical minerals supply chains, with the discussion framed around resiliency, security, and diversification rather than incremental optimization.
For its part, the US highlighted actions and investments already undertaken and planned steps to build more resilient, secure, and diversified critical minerals supply chains.
Bessent emphasized “prudent derisking over decoupling” and argued nations understand the need to remedy deficiencies in critical minerals supply chains.
This comes a month after Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada will not guarantee the US access to its critical minerals even as he and Ontario Premier Doug Ford pitched a new federal–Ontario agreement to speed approvals for mines and major projects. Carney framed US participation as possible but “not an assured opportunity.”
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