Washington, D.C. — Leading environmental and other civil society organizations submitted joint comments to the Office of U.S. Trade Representative today on critical minerals supply chain standards needed to advance shared climate and sustainable development goals. The submission was made as part of an official request for comments on the “Americas Partnership for Economic Property Trade Track,” including for comments on “Value and supply chain resilience and sustainability, with a particular focus on clean energy… and semiconductors.”
The groups’ joint submission states that “initiatives aimed at improving critical minerals supply chains must do so in a manner that prioritizes meeting the climate, job creation, and sustainable development goals of both the United States and its trading partners, while also advancing a global race-to-the-top in human rights.”
The comments make policy recommendations in a variety of areas, including:
- Promoting critical minerals circularity;
- Supporting sustainable development and job creation;
- Ensuring free, prior and informed consent;
- Protecting worker rights and on-the-job safety;
- Advancing environmental protections;
- Requiring ownership transparency;
- Enabling effective enforcement; and
- Embracing public participation.
The comments further criticize the U.S.-Japan Critical Minerals Agreement as setting “a concerning precedent” and state that meeting climate and development goals in a manner that avoids exploitative resource extraction models will require “the development of agreements with enforceable rules” and “the careful selection of partner countries willing and able to enforce those terms or face sanctions.”
The 15 organizational signers of the comments are the Trade Justice Education Fund, Center for International Environmental Law, Climate Rights International, Earthjustice, Earthworks, Friends of the Earth U.S., Interfaith Power & Light, Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, Mighty Earth, NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, Pax Christi International, Public Citizen, Sierra Club, Sisters of Mercy of the Americas Justice Team and U.S. Federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph.
A PDF of the organizations’ joint comments is available at: https://tradejusticeedfund.org/wp-content/uploads/APEP_CriticalMineralsComments_071924.pdf
During the same public comment period, the Trade Justice Education Fund also submitted comments on behalf of 588 individuals calling for any APEP critical minerals agreement to “include measures that prioritize ‘reduce, reuse and recycling’ within supply chains; develop good-paying value chain jobs in both the U.S. and countries from which minerals are extracted or recovered; establish strong, binding labor, environmental, Indigenous rights, community engagement and ownership transparency standards throughout the supply chain; and back up all such standards with strong enforcement tools.”
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