Comprehensive Scoring Analysis

Ministers from the US, EU, UK, Japan, Australia and New Zealand will meet in Washington this week to discuss a strategi…

The summit is being seen as a step to repair transatlantic ties fractured by a year of conflict with Donald Trump and p…

Australia said on Friday it would establish a A$1.

2bn (£610m) strategic reserve of minerals it believes are vulnerable to supply disruption from China, which last April …

It is the second summit on the matter within a month and involves about 20 countries including the G7 members – the UK,…

One area of discussion will be calls for the US to guarantee a minimum price for critical minerals and rare earths.

A report this week that Washington has decided against the idea sent shares downwards in Australia, which has been posi…

It follows in the footsteps of Japan, which has actively built reserves for years to build resilience against China’s w…

Canberra’s resources minister, Madeleine King, said a US decision not to offer minimum pricing “won’t stop Australia fr…

The Washington meeting has been convened by the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, as he and other countries in attend…

“Strengthening critical mineral supply chains with international partners is vital for the US economy, national securit…

EU sources said that if talks were successful, a joint statement would which could be seen as a milestone shift in rela…

A UK minister will attend, the Foreign Office said, adding: “UK economic security goes hand in hand with national secur…

That’s why we are working to ensure a diversified critical minerals supply chain – a vital step to securing economic gr…

“We look forward to continuing these important discussions with key partners.

” The EU is also expected to use the summit to press the US to drop its new global steel derivative tariffs, which woul…

The first derivative tariff list was published in August, after Trump shook hands on the EU tariff deal at his Scottish…

The Trump administration has threatened to introduce a second list of up to 700 products this January, but the list has…

“We have complained a lot,” added one EU insider, while another said: “We hope they will take this into account as they…

“They could argue that the first batch were announced between the deal in Scotland and the US-EU joint statement, but t…

” “This is about trust.

You sign a deal and you trust it will apply,” said an EU source.

“This constant threat of more tariffs, whether 10% because of Greenland or 200% on champagne because they don’t sign up…

” The Trump administration has been convening multilateral consultations since October, when it agreed to a 12-month tr…

The minerals have become some of the most essential raw materials for modern manufacturing, needed to produce everythin…

Europe’s supply of permanent magnets, which are made with rare earths which have high magnetic properties, comes almost…

According to senior European Commission officials in December, the EU uses 20,000 tonnes of permanent magnets a year, o…