By Leigh Thomas and Elizabeth Howcroft
PARIS, May 6 (Reuters) – Group of Seven trade ministers meeting in Paris on Wednesday sought common ground on securing critical mineral supplies that are dominated by China, but fresh U.S. tariff threats against European Union-made cars risked straining unity.
France wants critical minerals supplies to be among the most concrete deliverables during its G7 presidency as ministers prepare for a leaders’ summit in mid-June, Foreign Trade Minister Nicolas Forissier said as he arrived for talks.
“I believe we will make very concrete progress on rare earths and critical minerals, securing our supply chains and ensuring we are not held hostage by certain countries,” he said.
China’s share of the market for minerals used in everything from electric vehicles, wind turbines, electronics to defence systems is so dominant that it can set prices low enough to drive rivals out, French Finance Minister Roland Lescure said on Tuesday.
G7 countries will seek to “ensure that attempts or threats to weaponize economic dependencies will fail”, the trade ministers said in a joint statement after their meeting.
Officials involved in the discussions said there was broad agreement on the need to reduce reliance on China, but significant differences remained about how to do so with two sets of proposals from the European and U.S. sides.
TRANSATLANTIC TENSIONS TEST UNITY
G7 unity is also being tested by comments from U.S. President Donald Trump, who said Washington would raise tariffs on EU-made cars to 25% from 15%, arguing that Brussels was not complying with a trade deal that was agreed upon in Turnberry, Scotland, last year.
Forissier said Trump’s comments were “a call to keep moving forward” on the implementation of the Turnberry agreement, which he said could be achieved by summer.
EU lawmakers and governments were working on Wednesday to finalise a common text on the legislation to implement the deal, though divisions over safeguards have made it more difficult to reach a swift agreement.
German Economy Minister Katherina Reiche said that she was in intensive talks with U.S. officials over the tariffs. Germany’s export-dependent automotive sector has already been under strain from weakening demand in China, slower global growth and higher input and labour costs.
EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic said he and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer had discussed the Turnberry agreement at a meeting in Paris on Tuesday and that he would be heading to the European Parliament, where negotiations on EU legislation related to the trade deal will take place later on Wednesday.
“We both clearly concluded that it’s important to respect the deal from Turnberry from both sides, so we have to deliver on what was promised in Scotland,” Sefcovic said.
The trade ministers discussed industrial overcapacity – China being the main source – and reform of the World Trade Organization, Forissier said.
(Reporting by Elizabeth Howcroft, Makini Brice and Leigh Thomas in Paris and Kirsti Knolle in Berlin; Editing by David Goodman, Alexandra Hudson and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
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