India eyes critical minerals partnership pact with US: Piyush Goyal

Earlier this month, India and US signed an initial pact to cooperate on strengthening supply chains in the two countries for lithium, cobalt and other critical minerals used in electric vehicles and clean energy applications.

New Delhi: India and the United States, which recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for cooperation in mining and processing of critical minerals like lithium and cobalt, plan to enhance the pact to the level of ‘critical mineral partnership agreement’, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Saturday.

"I had suggested that critical mineral MoU to be converted to a critical mineral partnership and become a starting point to become an FTA,” Goyal said at a media briefing.

Goyal and US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo signed an MoU earlier this month to expand and diversify critical minerals supply chains, with the aim of leveraging the two countries’ complementary strengths to ensure greater resilience in the critical minerals sector. The agreement was signed in Washington on October 3.

According to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, priority areas of the MoU include identifying equipment, services, policies, and best practices to facilitate the mutually beneficial commercial development of US and Indian critical minerals exploration, extraction, processing and refining, recycling, and recovery.

The MoU is not a binding agreement. The proposed ‘partnership agreement’ would be binding in nature. It will be a deal like a free trade agreement (FTA).

However, Goyal clarified that there is no FTA negotiation. “US Congress is not keen on FTA with any country, not just India,” he said.

The minister also informed that India-US CEO Forum would be restructured after the US presidential election.

The India-US CEO Forum is a platform that allows private sector members to develop and provide recommendations to the Indian and US governments, reflecting the private sector’s views, concerns, and suggestions, including the creation of an environment in which bilateral economic links are strengthened.

On India’s relation with the new US government that will be formed after the election, Goyal said, “Mr. Modi (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) has worked with both sides of the US (politics). He has worked with Obama administration, equally well worked with Trump administration, worked with Biden-Harris administration. I think the American government recognises that this is an enduring relationship and this is the relationship of the future.”

Barack Obama served as US president from 2009 to 2017 followed by Donald Trump and Joe Biden. US Vice President Kamala Harris is pitched against Trump in the election which will be held in November.