US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday night that will boost US seabed mining in national and international waters. The AFP news agency reports.
The deep seabed contains a wide range of minerals that are sought after in the production of everything from electric cars to microchips. This applies to cobalt, for example. China controls the vast majority of the world's supply chain for these minerals, and this has led to a race between the rest of the world to discover and obtain more from the seabed.
With the new executive order, Donald Trump will make it easier and faster for companies to obtain permits to mine on the seabed. The purpose of the increased mining is to make the United States less dependent on China's growing influence over seabed mineral resources, the White House says.
Will bypass the UN International Seabed Authority
According to White House officials, increased American mining on the seabed could pump hundreds of billions of dollars into the US economy, writes AFP.
According to CNN, the decree will allow companies to bypass the UN International Seabed Authority (ISA), which is responsible for setting the rules that apply to the emerging industry. The United States is not a member of the International Seabed Authority.
Instead, "the Trump administration is relying on an obscure 1980 law that gives the federal government the right to issue permits for mining on the seabed in international waters," the New York Times writes, according to AFP.
The initiative to drill for the minerals goes against recommendations from environmental organizations. The process can cause major damage to nature, it says. According to a new report from the World Wide Fund for Nature, mining for minerals in the deep sea is in violation of a wide range of international environmental obligations and global goals.
China's Foreign Ministry said on Friday that the US push to approve more deep-sea mining "violates international law," AFP writes.
/ritzau/
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