U.S. launches FORGE, seeks allied trade bloc to secure critical minerals

The United States unveiled a coordinated international effort to insulate allied industry from concentrated mineral supply chains, proposing a new coordination forum, a strategic stockpile and a suite of trade tools that together aim to redirect investment and guarantee access to materials for semiconductors, electric vehicles and defense systems.

At the Critical Minerals Ministerial in Washington, U.S. officials announced the creation of the Forum on Resource Geostrategic Engagement, or FORGE, described as the successor to an earlier Minerals Security Partnership. FORGE will align partners on mining, refining, processing and recycling projects and will "explore a plurilateral trade initiative" that could include border-adjusted price floors, standards-based markets, price-gap subsidies and offtake agreements. The Republic of Korea is slated to chair FORGE through June.

Vice President J.D. Vance framed the initiative in explicit strategic terms, saying, "We want members to form a trading bloc among allies and partners, one that guarantees American access to American industrial might while also expanding production across the entire zone." U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio added that critical minerals were "heavily concentrated in the hands of one country," and said that concentration had become a "tool of leverage in geopolitics."

Officials presented the package as a mix of diplomatic, financial and market measures rather than final, binding trade rules. The proposals put forward mechanisms to stabilize prices and encourage new capacity, including coordinated reference prices or price floors and the use of tariffs to enforce minimums, price supports and guaranteed purchases. Participants were careful to describe these instruments as matters for further negotiation, and as elements of an action plan rather than immediate multilateral commitments.

Complementing the coordination agenda, President Donald Trump unveiled Project Vault, a strategic reserve intended to smooth supply shocks. Project Vault will be financed to the tune of $12 billion, with $10 billion coming from the U.S. Export-Import Bank and $2 billion in private funds, and is described as targeting critical minerals such as rare earths, lithium and copper to stabilize prices and support manufacturers.

The ministerial drew delegations from more than 50 countries; official counts varied, with attendance reported as either 54 or 55 countries. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer announced a bilateral plan with Mexico and a trilateral framework with the European Union and Japan to accelerate cooperation. Washington also disclosed a set of new bilateral critical-minerals agreements; officials described 11 new pacts building on roughly 10 earlier accords and noted negotiations completed with an additional 17 nations. A separate list of named bilateral partners includes Argentina, the Cook Islands, Ecuador, Guinea, Morocco, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, the United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan, and the U.S. and Mexico unveiled a 60-day plan to develop coordinated trade policies that could feed into a binding plurilateral agreement.

U.S. policymakers cited recent episodes in which a dominant processor curtailed exports as proof of the systemic risk created by concentrated supply chains. The aim, they said, is to widen the industrial footprint for critical minerals across allied markets, attract financing and reduce the geopolitical leverage that can flow from control of processing capacity.

Next steps are procedural: the 60-day Mexico plan, expedited MOUs on projects among core partners and further work within FORGE and other forums to translate exploratory measures into enforceable agreements. Implementation will raise technical, legal and trade-policy questions, including how reference prices would be set, how tariffs would be reconciled with global trade rules and which countries and companies would meet membership and procurement standards.