We, the leaders of Japan, the Philippines, and the United States, met today for the first Summit between our three countries. As three Indo-Pacific maritime democracies, our nations and the half-billion people we collectively represent are bound together by historical ties of friendship, robust and growing economic relations, and a proud and resolute commitment to our shared fundamental values of freedom, democracy, respect for human rights, and the rule of law…Japan, the Philippines, and the United States support critical minerals industries in all of our countries as a way to promote resilient and reliable global supply chains for critical minerals. We share the goal of producing and supplying battery materials and batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage systems for the global marketplace. The United States, under the International Visitor Leadership Program, plans to manage a clean energy supply chain training program for select participants from Japan and the Philippines. In addition, the United States and Japan look forward to the Philippines being a founding member of the Minerals Security Partnership Forum, which signifies an important step towards securing and diversifying our collective clean energy supply chains…Finally, we underscore the importance of strong democratic institutions, the rule of law, and respect for human rights, gender equality, and human dignity. We represent proud, resilient democracies, mindful of our respective challenges but determined to overcome them, and we remain committed to safeguarding the human rights, media freedom, and labor rights of our people. These democratic values form the very foundation of our bilateral relationships and this trilateral partnership. These ideals have helped us build and sustain the mutual trust between us as leaders and between our people. United by these shared values, we commit to continuing our work together to address the consequential issues of our time, and to build a better future for future generations across our nations, the Indo-Pacific, and the world.

President Joe Biden has been urged to ban imports of Chinese-made electric cars to the US. The chair of the Senate Banking Committee, Senator Sherrod Brown, wrote "Chinese electric vehicles are an existential threat to the American auto industry"…His comments are the strongest yet by any US lawmaker on the issue, while others have called for steep tariffs to keep Chinese electric vehicles (EV) out of the country. In February, the White House said the US was opening an investigation into whether Chinese cars pose a national security risk…"We cannot allow China to bring its government-backed cheating to the American auto industry", Senator Brown said in a video on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter…Washington could impose restrictions over concerns that the technology in Chinese-made cars could "collect large amounts of sensitive data on their drivers and passengers", the White House said…It warned cars that are connected to the internet "regularly use their cameras and sensors to record detailed information on US infrastructure; interact directly with critical infrastructure; and can be piloted or disabled remotely"…This week, while on a trip to China, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Beijing that Washington would not allow a repeat of the "China shock" of the early 2000s, when Chinese imports flooded into America…Also on Thursday, America's biggest airlines asked the Biden administration to halt approvals of new flights between the US and China…In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Transportation Department Secretary Pete Buttigieg they said China's “damaging anti-competitive policies” put US carriers at a disadvantage.

China's top trade official warned Brussels against protectionism on Friday, saying Beijing was puzzled by EU probes into green tech exports and the bloc's concerns they threaten the domestic solar panel, wind turbine and electric vehicle industries…"We fail to understand how the EU commission carries the banner of sustainable and green development and then takes protectionist actions, thereby in effect generating more and more risks," Wang said in some of his first public comments during the European trip…In its EV investigation, the Commission is expected to decide whether to impose provisional duties by June 5. It would then publish an initial list of companies affected and decide on definitive duties by early November…European policymakers are keen to avoid a repeat of what happened with solar panels a decade ago when the EU took no action to curb Chinese imports and many European manufacturers collapsed…Addressing the Verona conference, Italy's Industry Minister Antonio Tajani, previously a European Commissioner, said the European Commission needed to prevent what he called "environmental dumping", a reference to selling green technology below the domestic price to gain market share…Italy seeks inward investment while Chinese carmakers, pursuing sales of their lower-cost, mostly electric, vehicles in the region are seeking to set up manufacturing sites in Europe…China's BYD has already announced plans to build a facility in Hungary, while rival Chery Auto might pick Spain or Italy for a similar investment.

Chinese electric vehicle maker GAC Aion's Hyper brand said on Friday it has finished R&D on all-solid-state batteries that will be first used in Hyper cars in 2026…The 400 watt hour per kilogram solid-state batteries tout more than 1,000 kilometres (621 miles) of driving range.

Electric vehicle battery chemistries have seen rapid change over the last few years, mainly to reduce usage of costly nickel and cobalt, and more change will follow as cheaper iron and manganese gain market share, participants at the Financial Times' Commodities Global Summit in Lausanne said this week…One marked recent change has been the shift from NMC (nickel-manganese-cobalt) batteries to LFP (lithium-iron-phosphate) batteries, particularly in China…However, because of the lower range offered by LFP batteries, "it will be tough" for western car users "to get by just with LFP vehicles," partly because of insufficient charging infrastructure and times, van der Post said…NMC and LFP are set to be the two biggest competing EV battery chemistries over the next decade, panelists said…Major regional differences in chemistries and usage will nonetheless remain, said Arie Pilo, global head of principal investments at Castleton Commodities International (CCI), a trading and investment firm…He said that there is a bigger appetite for ternary batteries in North America, where people drive longer distances than in Europe or China…Overall, the cost of battery packs is about an eighth of their prices several years ago, van der Post noted…James Clark, VP of strategic supply chain at Norwegian battery maker Freyr, said that Europe is less competitive than China in battery manufacturing because it has very little cathode or cell production and still needs to build up its regional materials supply chain…"We may be dependent on China for a long period," added van der Post, noting that this is what makes striking joint ventures with Chinese companies attractive in this area…Permitting for new ventures in Europe also needs to speed up, new battery makers in China can set up a plant in 18 months although this could take six-seven years in Europe, he said.