G7 and Industry Push Back Against Trump’s Mineral Plan

The Trump administration’s aggressive strategy to build a Western critical minerals trading bloc faces steep resistance from G7 allies and a deeply fragmented domestic mining industry. First proposed by U.S. Vice President JD Vance, the blueprint seeks to insulate Western supply chains from Chinese market dominance. China currently suppresses global prices for critical components used in defence technology and electric vehicles. However, diplomatic negotiations have slowed significantly due to sharp disagreements over the plan’s cost, governance structure, and reliance on artificial pricing mechanics. 

G7 members have pushed back heavily against U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer over a proposal to set artificial market price floors. The White House wants to calculate these baseline prices using an AI program called Open Price Exploration for National Security (OPEN), developed by DARPA, the Pentagon’s research arm. European officials have strongly cooled on this model. The broader debate over defence-backed AI systems is unfolding alongside a parallel shift in the private sector, where leading AI companies are racing toward public markets — a trend underscored by OpenAI’s Filing for a U.S. IPO after Anthropic’s Big Move — raising fresh questions about who ultimately controls the commercial future of these technologies. Governance models have further widened the diplomatic divide, as France and Canada prefer a multilateral, G7-led framework managed by a permanent secretariat inside the IEA, while the U.S. bypasses these talks to lock in fast, concrete bilateral treaties.

Domestically, a review of over 230 public policy submissions to the U.S. Trade Representative reveals deep corporate anxiety. Major players like General Motors, MP Materials, and Sibanye-Stillwater broadly agree that the alliance should focus heavily on niche minerals and downstream products such as smartphones and car batteries.