Tokyo pact pairs magnet supply chain resilience with new nuclear cooperation, days before Trump meets Xi.
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(Image credit: Mark Schiefelbein/AP) The US and Japan have signed a rare earths and energy cooperation agreement aimed squarely at China’s chokehold on critical tech supply chains. Announced on October 28 in Tokyo, the agreement commits both governments to securing mineral flows and accelerating the deployment of advanced nuclear power.
The timing of this is obviously no accident. President Trump is set to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping later this week, and today’s announcement served as a pointed signal that the US is actively building alternative pathways around China’s resource leverage. This is the first major bilateral engagement of Japan’s new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who took office on October 21.
While specifics surrounding the cooperation agreement are not yet known, it’ll likely include pathways for accessing neodymium and praseodymium, two rare earths essential to producing the permanent magnets used in everything from EV motors to consumer hard drives. For now, this is a sector China still dominates. Despite holding around half of the world’s total rare earth oxides, it controls over 85% of the global refining and magnet-making capacity.
President Trump warns China of massive tariff increases in wake of expanded rare earths export controls
Taiwan says its chip fabs are safe from China’s rare-earth crackdown
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/us-and-japan-move-to-pry-rare-earths-from-chinas-grip#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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