Paris G7 Pushes Back on China’s Grip on Critical Minerals

The bloc agreed on the need to break Beijing’s grip on rare earths and processing, but experts said rebuilding Western capacity will take years.

Flags of (L–R) Germany, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, the UK, the United States, and the European Union are displayed for a G7 Foreign Ministers Meeting at the City Hall in Muenster, Germany, on Nov. 3, 2022. Wolfgang Rattay /POOL/AFP via Getty Images

PARIS—G7 trade ministers wrapped up two days of talks in Paris this week with a joint statement that, without naming China, took aim at Beijing’s grip on critical mineral supply chains and signaled the bloc’s intent to push back against what they called attempts to “weaponize economic dependencies.”

Held May 5–6 under France’s rotating G7 presidency, the meeting targeted Western reliance on Chinese-controlled supplies of lithium, cobalt, rare earths, and other materials essential for defense systems, electric vehicles, semiconductors, and industrial manufacturing. The talks set the stage for a leaders’ summit scheduled for mid-June in Évian, France.