Tajani: «We want to collaborate to have a common strategy on raw materials» assuming a «key role». Italy is ready «to share its solid expertise» also «in the recycling sector»
The game of critical minerals and rare earths cannot be won without a cooperation framework involving multiple actors. With a view to ousting China from the dominance of critical raw materials, the United States organized a ministerial meeting on the topic, bringing together representatives of over 50 countries in Washington, including the Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani.
The American plan for a preferential trading zone
While never explicitly mentioning Beijing, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio explained the purpose of the meeting in his opening speech. That is to «be a point of reference on what is an international problem that requires multilateral international solutions». The vice president of the United States, JD Vance, went into more detail. He specified that the idea is to create “a concrete mechanism to return the global market for critical minerals to a healthier and more competitive state”. This means eliminating “the problem of people flooding our markets with cheap critical minerals to penalize our domestic producers.” The American initiative proposes to “establish reference prices for critical minerals at each stage of production that reflect real value.” And above all «for members of the preferential trading zone, these reference prices will act as a minimum threshold» which will be «maintained through adjustable duties to safeguard the integrity of prices».
The strategic partnership between the United States, Europe and Japan
In the context of the ministerial meeting, the EU, the United States and Japan announced a strategic partnership to strengthen the security of supply chains for critical minerals. And in this regard, in the joint statement, they stated “their intention to accelerate cooperation efforts for a mutually beneficial partnership”. The commitment is to conclude a memorandum of understanding on critical minerals within 30 days. The document “will identify areas of cooperation to stimulate demand and diversify supply chains, by identifying and supporting extraction, refining, processing and recycling projects”.
Italy aims for “a common strategy on raw materials”
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani underlined that the issue of critical minerals is “an absolute priority” for both the United States and Italy. Interviewed by Fox News, he declared: «We want to collaborate with the Americans to have a common strategy on raw materials» also because «Italy is an industrial country: the second most important in Europe, the fourth in the world for trade». And with Beijing “being the price queen” of critical minerals, Tajani warned that “to compete globally, we need to have raw material prices that allow us not to be crippled.” With the aim of becoming “more competitive”, he then announced that Italy wants to work with “Europeans and Americans”, but also with “Japan, South Korea, Africa and South America”. Among other things, the urgency is evident when looking at the present but also at the next few years. In fact, the deputy prime minister recalled that “currently, the impact of critical raw materials on our industrial production amounts to 31 percent of GDP”. And by 2030, Italy’s dependence on China “for critical raw materials will have increased by 10 percent compared to today.”
«The key role» of our country
If the objective of the meeting in Washington was to “identify win-win solutions”, Tajani underlined that our country aims to “play a key role”. In particular, Italy is ready «to share its solid expertise, for example, in the recycling sector» given that it is «a key sector for strengthening sustainability and resilience». But also in the space sector, Italy can carry out an important task: «In this specific sector, we hope for more innovative partnerships also on rare critical minerals and on the collection of precious space waste».
The joint initiative of Italy and Germany
That Italy aims to be a protagonist in this strategy is also evident from the initiative undertaken together with Germany. On Tuesday, Rome and Berlin sent the European Commission a document on the topic of critical raw materials “to relaunch the European commitment, with the aim of mitigating strategic dependencies and building secure supply chains for European companies”. The aim, Tajani highlighted, is therefore to arrive at “a common strategy that allows the European continent to be competitive”.
