HR6696-119

What This Bill Does

The Restoring American Mineral Security Act builds a trade-and-finance framework for critical minerals. It states that the United States depends heavily on China for key mineral production and processing and that coordinated trade tools with trusted partners can counter oversupply, forced labor, transshipment, and market manipulation. The bill defines critical minerals, derivative products such as semiconductor wafers, batteries, permanent magnets, motors, smartphones, microprocessors, radar systems, and wind turbines, foreign countries of concern, foreign entities of concern, processed minerals, and select derivative products. USTR may negotiate a Critical Minerals Security Alliance with countries that adopt comparable duties or trade remedies against foreign-country-of-concern supply, join regular meetings, review capacity, eliminate duties among Alliance members, address transshipment and forced labor, maintain investment screening, use effective trade remedies, and coordinate duty policy. Alliance-country imports of covered minerals and select derivative products enter duty-free and are exempt from later section 301 or section 232 duties, while imports sourced from foreign countries of concern face the January 1, 2026 China section 301 duty rate once the first agreement enters force. Duty receipts flow quarterly into a Treasury trust fund available without further appropriation: 60 percent to DOE Loan Programs Office mineral and derivative-product projects, 20 percent to DOD projects, and 20 percent to the Development Finance Corporation for international projects in Alliance countries, including upper-middle-income or high-income economies when certified by the President.

Who Benefits and How

United States critical mineral producers, processors, battery makers, magnet makers, defense manufacturers, and allied-country mineral projects benefit from tariff protection, duty-free Alliance trade, and trust-fund financing. DOE, DOD, and the Development Finance Corporation gain dedicated funding streams for mining, processing, and derivative-product projects.

Who Bears the Burden and How

USTR, Commerce, Treasury, State, congressional committees, Treasury trust fund staff, DOE, DOD, and DFC administrators must negotiate, certify, consult, review, and finance the Alliance. Manufacturers and importers using foreign-country-of-concern mineral inputs face higher duties. Foreign-country-of-concern exporters and foreign entities of concern lose market access or price competitiveness.

Key Provisions

• Creates a Critical Minerals Security Alliance for trusted trading partners that meet tariff, trade-remedy, investment-screening, capacity-review, and anti-transshipment criteria.
• Requires USTR consultation with Commerce, Treasury, State, and congressional committees before certifying eligible Alliance countries.
• Imposes China-equivalent section 301 duty rates on covered critical minerals and select derivative products from foreign countries of concern after the first Alliance agreement enters force.
• Establishes a Treasury trust fund that sends duty revenue to DOE, DOD, and Development Finance Corporation critical-mineral projects.
• Provides duty-free and section 301 or 232 duty exemptions for Alliance-country covered mineral imports once agreements enter force.