Restoring American Mineral Security Act of 2025
This bill, titled the Restoring American Mineral Security Act of 2025, would create an international framework—the Critical Minerals Security Alliance—intended to secure a reliable supply chain of critical minerals and related derivative products for the United States. The core idea is to bring allied countries into a formal alliance, raise or harmonize duties on imported critical minerals and certain derivative products from non-alliance countries (especially those from “foreign countries of concern” or “foreign entities of concern”), and funnel a portion of duty revenues into a new trust fund to support domestic mining/processing and international projects. It envisions working with partner nations to reduce U.S. dependence on Chinese production and processing, while offering duty-free treatment among alliance members and encouraging screening, trade remedies, and coordinated investments. In short, the bill attempts to (1) establish a structured partnership with trusted trading partners, (2) raise tariffs on imports from countries of concern while phasing in or offering alternatives, (3) create a dedicated fund to promote U.S. mineral mining and related manufacturing, and (4) provide ongoing Congressional oversight and periodic reviews of the alliance and its duties.
Key Points
- 1Establishment and eligibility for a Critical Minerals Security Alliance
- 2- The Trade Representative would negotiate to form the Alliance with eligible countries, with input from Commerce, Treasury, and State.
- 3- Eligibility requires a country to commit to higher duties on mined/processed critical minerals and select derivative products from countries of concern, meet regular alliance meetings, assess its own mining/processing capacity, and cooperate on trade remedies, illicit shipments, and investment screening.
- 4Terms of participation and enforcement
- 5- Alliance members would eliminate duties on imports of mined/processed minerals and select derivative products among themselves (with certain exceptions for anti-dumping/countervailing duties).
- 6- Non-members would face actions to counter unfair trade practices and deter evasion, including investment screening and robust trade remedies.
- 7Negotiating objectives and scope
- 8- The agreement should cover not less than 90% of the listed critical minerals and 100% of select derivative products.
- 9- Members may phase in duty increases over up to five years or adopt comparable trade-remedy measures.
- 10Congressional review and approval
- 11- Any admittance or modification of a country into the Alliance requires a qualifying certification from the Trade Representative and could be enacted by joint resolutions of approval or disapproval, subject to a 90-day window without disapproval.
- 12Duties and timeline
- 13- Upon entry into force, imports from Alliance Countries of Concern would be subject to the same duties in effect on January 1, 2026, and applicable to China under the 301 tariffs, until further action.
- 14Trust fund to support mining and processing
- 15- A new Critical Minerals Trust Fund would be created in the Treasury. It would receive transfers equal to the duties collected from imports of mined/processed minerals by the admitting country (and would be transferred at least quarterly).
- 16- The fund would be invested, and earnings would stay in the fund.
- 17- Allocation of funds (without new appropriation):
- 18- 60% to the DOE’s Loan Programs Office for mining/processing and related manufacturing projects.
- 19- 20% to the Department of Defense for similar projects.
- 20- 20% to the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC/DFC) for international critical mineral projects in Alliance member countries.
- 21- The BUILD Act limitations would be partially waived to allow certain support, under criteria related to national interest, developmental impact, countering a competitor’s leverage, and ensuring U.S. participation or a U.S.-preferred buyer share for critical minerals.
- 22Oversight, reviews, and reporting
- 23- The Trade Representative must conduct five-year reviews and annual reports detailing engagement with alliance partners, any deficiencies of non-compliant countries, and the capacity data provided by Alliance members.