“In the meantime, China’s state-backed companies are willing to producer minerals far beyond existing demand, driving down prices and making it harder for companies in the U.S. and allied countries to compete.
That has national security analysts in Washington nervous, envisioning a future where renewable energy and electric vehicles become a much larger slice of the economy than they are now, with supply chains still running through Beijing.
‘Because of their position with the vast majority of critical minerals they can control market prices,’ said Avery Ash, a lobbyist with Securing America’s Future Energy, a nonprofit representing business and former military interests. ‘That’s a really challenging proposition for companies working to get access to these resources. China has shown their willingness to manipulate the market for their benefit.’
The United States and the European Union have long pushed back against Chinese over-production. And now other countries are starting to join them, with Brazil, India, Argentina, Japan and Indonesia all enacting trade provisions seeking to limit Chinese imports over the past two years, according to Global Trade Alert, a Swiss nonprofit.”
Read the full article: “Inside the U.S.’s long, slow plan to undercut China on clean energy”
