Transformation of EU and U.S. Trade Policies on Critical Minerals Imports for Achieving Climate Goals

This thesis explores the transformation of the EU and U.S. trade policies on the imports of critical minerals that are necessary for the production of clean energy technologies to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. In light of both economies’ commitment to pursue net zero development, the issues of ensuring resilient and stable supply of critical minerals, reducing the risks of non-tariff restrictions on the export of raw materials by producing countries, and diversifying import sources are of particular importance. This paper formulates the main similarities and differences between the approaches of the EU and the U.S. to the design of climate policies, which also leads to a rising demand in critical minerals. It also identifies key provisions of relevant legal acts regulating the imports of critical minerals needed to achieve climate goals, and conducts a comparative analysis of legislation in this area, in particular the EU and the U.S. criticality assessments which measure economic vulnerability to supply disruptions. The thesis gives a detailed analysis of the dynamics of critical minerals imports in the EU and the U.S. and provides a classification of non-tariff import measures targeting critical minerals, regional trade agreements, partial scope trade agreements, and partnership formats with producing countries used to diversify imports. Finally, this paper performs an assessment of the diversification of critical minerals imports between 2015 in 2022 using the Import Significance Index. Based on the outcomes of the assessment, it suggests prospects for further diversification of critical minerals imports in the EU and the U.S.