From China chokehold to US stockpile, Europe looks for least bad rare earth bet

EU industry chief Stephane Sejourne was in Washington on Wednesday, with a mandate from the bloc’s 27 member states to work towards a memorandum on critical minerals with the United States.

With the sides keen to reduce their reliance on China, dramatically weaponised during last year’s US-China trade war, the French commissioner secured a “commitment” to work towards a memorandum within 30 days, to identify joint mining, refining, processing and recycling projects.

In a joint statement that also included Japan, the sides agreed to “explore a plurilateral trade initiative” on critical minerals. This would include coordinated trade policies and mechanisms such as border-adjusted price floors, standards-based markets, price gap subsidies, or offtake agreements.

But after a rocky start to 2026 in transatlantic relations, partnering with the US on such a crucial area has stoked anxiety in Europe about swapping dependency from a coercive supplier to an unreliable ally.

During G7 talks on stockpiling, European officials pointedly asked their US counterparts how they could possibly trust Washington to deliver on jointly acquired minerals when it keeps threatening to acquire the Danish territory of Greenland, according to people privy to the discussions.