in effect
This is Executive Order 14272, signed April 15, 2025, under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. It directs the Secretary of Commerce to open a formal investigation into whether U.S. imports of “processed critical minerals” and the products made from them threaten national security. It is a starting step that launches a study, not a set of tariffs or import limits by itself.
The order requires the Secretary of Commerce to begin a Section 232 investigation examining how reliant the U.S. is on foreign sources for these minerals and goods, which countries supply them, the dollar value of those imports, and whether foreign pricing or export practices distort the market. It sets deadlines: a draft interim report to named officials within 90 days, their comments back within 15 days, and a final report with recommendations to the President within 180 days of the investigation’s start. In forming recommendations, Commerce must weigh possible tariffs and other import restrictions, anti-circumvention safeguards, incentives for domestic production and recycling, and potential further steps under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The order also defines key terms, including “critical minerals” (the USGS list plus uranium), “rare earth elements,” “processed critical minerals,” and “derivative products.”
Within government, the Commerce Department leads the work, with the Treasury, Defense, U.S. Trade Representative, and White House economic advisors reviewing the draft. U.S. industries that depend on these minerals — including makers of electric vehicles, batteries, magnets, semiconductors, defense systems, radar, and electronics — along with foreign suppliers and exporters of these materials could be affected by whatever the investigation later recommends. The order states it creates no legal rights enforceable against the U.S. government.