The Trump administration will seek to tighten control over strategic sectors by taking more equity stakes in key companies to counter China's economic policies and export restrictions, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday…Bessent told a CNBC event that China's dramatic new restrictions on rare earth minerals and magnets demonstrates the need for the U.S. to be self-sufficient in critical materials or rely more on trusted allies…More stakes are possible for sectors important to U.S. national security, including in rare earths, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals and steel, Bessent said. In rare earths, the administration will also set price floors and strategic stockpiles.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s increasing interventionist push into the Canadian critical-minerals sector may propel Ottawa to follow suit, but some industry players are cautioning the federal government to tread carefully…In the past few weeks, the Trump administration announced it had taken equity stakes in two Canadian critical-minerals companies, and Trilogy Metals Inc. . The U.S. government secured highly favourable terms in both transactions, with millions in virtually free warrants being issued, and a board seat in the case of Trilogy…The development comes amid a broader push by the Trump administration for increased state ownership of private industry for projects the White House deems critical to the country’s national security. The U.S. government has also recently taken equity positions in chip maker Intel Corp. and rare-earths company MP Materials Corp…“We are in this new world of increased state intervention directly in companies, in markets, to protect strategic interests,” he said. “It would not be surprising for the Canadian government to be looking at this stuff.”… “The Government of Canada continues to assess its economic tool kit to ensure its supports for critical minerals projects and companies are fit for purpose, recognizing geopolitical developments and emerging trends in global investment landscapes,” Carolyn Svonkin, spokesperson for Mr. Hodgson, replied in an e-mail.

Top U.S. officials on Wednesday blasted China's major expansion of rare earth export controls as a threat to global supply chains, but said Beijing could still change course and avoid steps by Washington to decouple from the world's second-largest economy…U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told a press conference that China's new export restrictions were a "global supply-chain power grab" and the U.S. and its allies would not accept the restrictions. However, Greer and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also stressed that Washington did not want to escalate the conflict, which has roiled financial markets and sent U.S.-China relations into a tailspin…Greer said China has not yet implemented the revised regulatory system for rare earths and could still back away, just as the U.S. had not implemented a retaliatory 100% increase in tariffs on Chinese imports…Their comments came hours after the U.S. and China rolled out tit-for-tat port fees, opens new tab on each other's ships, opening a new front in their bitter trade fight…Japanese Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato said he expressed "strong concern" over China's expansion of rare earth export controls in a meeting with his G7 counterparts in Washington on Wednesday…The U.S. does not want to economically decouple from China, but would have to take action if Beijing proved to be an unreliable supplier, Bessent said, noting that Chinese officials recently told U.S. auto companies that a slowdown in shipments of rare earth magnets was "probably something" to do with a holiday…"Not only is China fueling Russia's war (in Ukraine), but China's actions have once again demonstrated the risk of being dependent on them, on rare earths and for that matter, anything," Bessent said, adding, "If China wants to be an unreliable partner to the world, then the world will have to decouple."

China on Thursday accused the U.S. of stoking panic over its rare earth controls and said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had made "grossly distorted" remarks about a top Chinese trade negotiator, rejecting a White House call to roll back the curbs…Beijing's expanded rare earths export controls left trade negotiators and analysts the world over wondering whether China intends to require manufacturers of any product anywhere in the world containing even trace amounts of Chinese rare earths to apply for a licence to ship it to its final destination. He Yongqian told reporters that was not the case…Beijing attributes the unexpected ramping up of rhetoric to the U.S. Commerce Department's surprise expansion of its "Entity List" in late September to include companies in China and elsewhere that use subsidiaries to bypass export restrictions on chipmaking equipment and other high-tech goods. Washington pins the start to China's critical minerals move, which Trump described as "shocking." The Chinese side maintains it not only notified Washington before announcing the new licensing regime, but that the controls are also consistent with measures long in place in other major economies…Washington has had similar rules since the 1950s, and has been using them in recent years to stop foreign semiconductor companies selling chips to China if they are made using U.S. technology.

China is once again rolling out the big cannon of curbs on metals and minerals vital to the global energy transition, as well as key components in weapons and electronics…There is little doubt that every time China places restrictions on exports, or threatens to do so, it causes much consternation among Western governments and companies, which have come to rely on China's dominance of the processing and production of refined metals…The latest instance is China's decision to expand export controls on rare earths, adding five new elements to existing restrictions that have resulted in tighter scrutiny on products such as critical minerals used to produce magnets…If China does eventually decide to cut off Western buyers from metals such as rare earths, lithium, cobalt, antimony, tungsten and others, it would cause massive disruption to Western supply chains…But it would also prompt a rapid build out of new supply and processing facilities across the Western world…The ultimate risk for China is that in cutting off Western buyers from refined metals it would risk eventually destroying its own industry through massive overcapacity as Western buyers build out their own supply chains. China currently produces about 90% of refined rare earths, more than 90% of graphite, just under 80% of cobalt and nearly 70% of lithium…China is engaged in a tricky trade war with U.S. President Donald Trump and both sides are making threats to use what leverage they have to try and improve their negotiating positions…The problem for Beijing is that the more it rolls out the big guns of export restrictions on critical minerals, the more it encourages the Western world to bite the bullet and build alternative supply chains…As Trafigura Chief Executive Richard Holtum told the LME Week seminar in London on Monday, processing minerals is more important than mining them…If his message is increasingly being heeded in Western capitals, it's likely that more cash will be ploughed into metals refining, as well as subsidies and incentives to keep existing refineries operating even though they can't compete with China at current prices.