National Mining Association EVP and COO Katie Sweeney recently spoke before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on methods to enhance domestic mineral supply chains.
Sweeney, in her testimony, outlined how China has established and continues to maintain such an advantage in the global minerals market.
“China’s strong supply chain position does not result from an inherent advantage in reserves for most materials, but rather from heavy non-market activities, market manipulation, government subsidization and from investments in mining, processing and manufacturing industries,” she said.
“As a result, China’s share of global mineral production and processing has grown markedly since 1990 for many mineral commodities.”
She also stressed that “distortive and unfair market practices” employed by China and other countries, such as providing subsidies to domestic industries, create significant challenges for U.S. producers and also has the ability to destabilize global critical minerals supply chains.
“These subsidies take various forms, including direct financial support to domestic processing facilities, energy subsidies that lower electricity and operational costs, and tax incentives coupled with preferential loan programs,” she noted. “Consequently, Chinese producers can export critical minerals and downstream products, at artificially low prices, making it increasingly difficult for U.S. manufacturers to compete in both domestic and international markets.”
Sweeney outlined numerous steps that the U.S. can take to counter China’s clear current advantage, including permitting reform to tackle a “needlessly lengthy and cumbersome process” to bring America’s mines online, along with federal investments and incentives for domestic mineral production and refining projects, such as grants, tax credits, preferred loans, R&D funding, incentives for domestic sales, and price support.
She also spotlighted:
- The use of the National Security Capital Forum, Defense Production Act funds, leveraging of Export-Import Bank programs, preferred loans, investments at the Department of Energy’s National Laboratories, incentives for domestic sales, and set-aside quotas for domestic mineral production and refining projects.
- Implementing educational grant programs to support mining and trade schools, alongside training and development initiatives, to ensure a robust workforce to support increased domestic operations.
Sweeney’s full written testimony can be found here.
Source: nma.gov