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On April 15, 2025, President Trump directed the Secretary of Commerce to initiate an investigation under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 examining the threats to national security from imports of processed critical minerals and derivative products.  

The latest Section 232 investigation follows the Trump Administration’s April 1, 2025 initiation of Section 232 investigations against imports of pharmaceuticals and semiconductors which Husch Blackwell reported on here.

The investigation covers “critical minerals” and “rare earth elements” in the form of processed minerals such as critical mineral oxides, oxalates, salts, and metals. It also includes within its scope derivative products such as semiconductor wafers, anodes and cathodes and final products such as permanent magnets, motors, electric vehicles, batteries, smartphones, microprocessors, radar systems, wind turbines and their components, and advanced optical devices.

The term “critical minerals” refers the list of 50 minerals included in the “Critical Minerals List” published by the United States Geological Survey and includes uranium. The term “rare earth elements” refers to the 17 elements identified by the Department of Energy in the April 2020 publication titled “Critical Materials Rare Earths Supply Chain.”

In the Executive Order directing the probe to be conducted, President Trump notes the U.S.’s heavy dependence for essential materials on foreign sources including adversarial nations, and the risk of exposing the economy and U.S. defense sector to supply chain disruptions and economic coercion. In determining the effects of imports on national security, the Secretary of Commerce is required to evaluate the following factors:

  • U.S. imports of all processed critical minerals and derivative products;
  • Foreign sources by percentage and volume of all processed critical mineral imports and derivative product imports, the specific types of risks that may be associated with each source by country, and identification of source countries deemed to be of significant risk;
  • Distortive effects of predatory economic, pricing, and market manipulation strategies and practices used by countries, including on domestic investment and the viability of United States production.
  • How the strategies and practices described above permit such countries to maintain their control over the critical minerals processing sector and distort U.S. market prices for derivative products;
  • Demand for processed critical minerals by U.S. and global manufacturers of derivative products and the extent to which demand for processed critical minerals originates from countries that engage in manipulative practices; and
  • Current and potential capabilities of the United States to process critical minerals and their derivative products.

A draft interim report is due within 90 days of the Executive Order or July 14, 2025. A final report with recommendations is due within 180 days from the initiation date for the investigation. It is anticipated that the final report will be published in the month of October.

Recommendations may include imposition of tariffs or other import restrictions, adoption of safeguards to avoid circumvention of the measures, and/or adoption of domestic policies to incentivize domestic production, processing and recycling. A Fact Sheet accompanying the Executive Order clarifies that any resulting Section 232 tariffs would take the place of the current reciprocal tariff rate.

This is not the first time that a U.S. Administration has undertaken a Section 232 investigation on the national security effects of critical minerals. In 2021 the Biden Administration initiated an investigation into imports of neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) permanent magnets ultimately finding that the United States has no domestic production of rare earth oxides or metal and is dependent on foreign sources, especially China, for NdFeB magnets. The report made several recommendations on bolstering supplies but did not recommend imposition of tariffs. The first Trump administration initiated a Section 232 investigation on imports of uranium. Although the Commerce Department found that uranium imports threaten to impair the national security of the United States and recommended a phased reduction in imports, President Trump refused to impose quotas or tariffs.  

The Husch Blackwell Trade team continues to monitor developments and will provide additional updates as they arise.