The Raw Materials Rush - How the European Union is using trade agreements to secure supply of critical raw materials for its

The chapters on mining and raw materials included in these DCFTA are not as comprehensive as the current ERM chapters but can still be understood as precursors to the energy and raw materials chapters74 that were included in the negotiations from 2015 onwards.75 The role of FTAs as guaranteeing the supply of raw materials for the EU is discussed in detail in the next chapter. [...] The ERM clauses ‘purify’ the market of uneven forms of power, re-establishing the conditions of supposedly free and fair competition.90 In short, the aim of this article in the FTA is to maintain the market price and the free trade and flow of CRM. [...] Even if the narrative of the EU is currently set to understand strategic bilateral partnerships as “mutually beneficial” to increase the “local value addition”, the EU is looking to secure access to the raw materials by signing free trade agreements and making sure the value addition (smelting and processing) of the material happens in the EU. [...] for_Strategic_Technologies_and_Sectors_in_the_EU_2020.pdf 36 • European Commission (2019) ‘Report from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee of the Regions, and the European Investment Bank, on the Implementation of the Strategic Action Plan on Batteries: Building a Strategic Battery Value Chai. [...] TXT/?uri=CELEX:52008DC0699 48 • Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions tackling the challenges in commodity markets and on raw materials, 2011.