As far as I know, there is exactly one rare-earth metals mine in USA, at Mountain Pass on I-15 just west of the Nevada border. They send their ore to China for processing. Thanks, environists (no mental in the middle), for putting us in this bind, and poisoning so many in Myanmar and enslaving so many in Congo. They think that exporting pollution eliminates it. USA has much stricter mining and processing regulations that result in far more environmental care.
Restricting imports from uncertain sources, especially China is a legitimate use of trade restrictions, the aim of which is to shift sourcing to less uncertain sources. This is not the same as prioritizing domestic production although that woud incidentally be incentivized by restriction on imports from uncertain sources.
decarbonization is not a good goal.
As far as I know, there is exactly one rare-earth metals mine in USA, at Mountain Pass on I-15 just west of the Nevada border. They send their ore to China for processing. Thanks, environists (no mental in the middle), for putting us in this bind, and poisoning so many in Myanmar and enslaving so many in Congo. They think that exporting pollution eliminates it. USA has much stricter mining and processing regulations that result in far more environmental care.
Restricting imports from uncertain sources, especially China is a legitimate use of trade restrictions, the aim of which is to shift sourcing to less uncertain sources. This is not the same as prioritizing domestic production although that woud incidentally be incentivized by restriction on imports from uncertain sources.