How the US Is Trying to Challenge China's Critical Mineral Dominance

29 May 2026 · 52 min · S16 E23

Episode How the US Is Trying to Challenge China's Critical Mineral Dominance

0:00 52:18

The U.S. is rapidly reshaping its trade and industrial policies to build new critical mineral supply chains as part of a broader effort to reduce the country's dependence on China for these strategic resources. So far, however, most of Washington's deals have focused primarily on securing access to raw materials such as cobalt, lithium, and rare earths.

That alone may not be enough to compete with China, which has spent decades investing hundreds of billions of dollars in the infrastructure, processing capacity, and skilled workforce needed to build resilient supply chains.

Zainab Usman, senior research scholar and managing director of international programs at Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy, recently published a new paper examining how the U.S. is adapting its trade policies to strengthen its critical minerals strategy. She joins Eric and Géraud from Washington to discuss whether these efforts can realistically help the United States narrow the gap with China.

📌 Topics Covered in This Episode

• America's critical minerals strategy • U.S.-China supply chain competition • Why extraction alone isn't enough • The infrastructure and workforce gap • Trade policy as industrial policy • Africa's role in the minerals race • Can the U.S. catch up to China?

Show Notes:

• United Nations University: The International trade dimensions of the United States critical minerals security strategy by Zainab Usman • Bloomberg Originals: The $10 Billion Hunt for the Rocks That Power the World • Stanford Center on China's Economy and Institutions: Assessing the U.S.-China Competition for Minerals Crucial to the Development of Emerging Technologies

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