Although expected, Trump's executive order on the “outburst” of minerals and the offshore critical resources of America means that the United States is ready to extend the global rush for critical minerals such as lithium and rare earth metals on the high seas, while the majority of countries are still negotiating rules on how to ensure that extraction of the extraction is potentially massive environmental.
“The United States has faced unprecedented economic and national security challenges to ensure reliable supplies of criticism independent of foreign opponent control,” has managed the preamble to the president's 139th decree since his entry in January. China is specifically named later in the document.
THE orderPublished Thursday, obliges government officials to assess “the interest of the private sector and the opportunities for the exploration of mineral resources of the seabed, mining and environmental surveillance in the external continental plateau of the United States; in areas beyond national jurisdiction; And in the areas of the country of the national courts of certain other countries which express their interest to associate themselves with American companies on the mineral development of seabed ”.
The extent of Trump's ambition goes far beyond that of Norway, which announced its own plans last year – now interrupted after a reaction by environmentalists – to open sections of its territorial waters from the Arctic to exploration by mining companies.
The day the American president signed the executive decree, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre – who said that a last -minute parliamentary block on the ambitions of exploitation of his government's seabed was simply a postponement – was in Washington for two -lane interviews with Ukraine and trade.
Accelerate for exploration
Trump asked the US Secretary for Trade Howard Lutnick “to accelerate the process of revising and issuing mineral exploration licenses of the seabed and commercial recovery permits in fields beyond the national jurisdiction under the law on mineral resources due to the seabed”.
This, as Euronews reported it earlier this week, would mean that the United States used unknown national legislation dating from the 1980s to bypass current talks within the International UN Seabed (ISA) authority, which agreed with a moratorium pending the completion of current negotiations on the mining code linking security and environmental protection standards.
“This is clearly the greed of mining companies on common sense,” said Katie Matthews, chief scientist and main vice-president of the Global Oceana campaign group. “Any attempt to accelerate operations on the high seas without appropriate guarantees will only accelerate the destruction of our oceans.”
This was taken over by the Ocean Conservancy group, based in Washington, whose vice-president Jeff Watters noted that the regions of the American seabed subjected to mining 50 years ago had not yet been completely recovered. In addition, the Trump administration’s decision could trigger a destructive rush to secure minerals that have been nicknamed new oil. “By unilaterally pursuing mining in international waters in defiance of the rest of the world, the administration opens a door to other countries to do the same,” he said.
The decree follows a warning from the Secretary General of Isa Leticia Carvalho last month that “any unilateral action would constitute a violation of international law”. However, the United States is not one of the 169 countries, which have ratified the United Nations General Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Washington's decision came the same day that the European Commission filed a proposal to incorporate into EU law, more recent biodiversity beyond the National Jurisdiction Agreement (BBNJ), also knows the High Sea Treaty, which seeks to establish huge sea areas (MPAS) in the high sea online with the Kunming-Monsal 2022 agreement.
