The politics of the U.S. presidential race have been scrambled by Biden’s reluctant withdrawal and his late-hour anointing of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democrat nominee, but the campaign ahead is certain to focus on what President Trump could do for an economy reeling from the Biden-Harris administration’s obliviousness to the problems it caused and ignored.

Paramount to this is the critical issue of China’s stranglehold on the global supply chain of metals essential for manufacturing in a modern tech economy.

The Biden-Harris administration, despite its many trade policy shortcomings, did develop a credible plan of action regarding this issue within its first 100 days in office. However, what initially seemed like promising first steps to address the erosion of the critical metals supply chain soon turned into a slush fund for corruption. To solve this crisis, we need a different solution, and we certainly need it fast.

But what is that solution?  The report the Biden-Harris administration wrote in response to this issue claims “This is the moment to reimagine and rebuild a new American economy, not go back to the way things used to be.” However, the answer to this problem requires us to go back to the way things used to be — way back.

In 1936, the United States began stockpiling strategic materials, an idea that had been developed at the end of World War I. Those stockpiles were essential for meeting the enormous industrial requirements of the Second World War. As the shooting war ended and the Cold War began, the stockpiling program was greatly expanded.

It was clear to the United States then, as it should be now, that a national supply of critical materials is necessary for the prosperity of America. Despite these hard learned lessons, in 1978 the U.S General Accounting Offices submitted a report to Congress explaining that the government’s stockpiles would be deficient for years to come.

The Defense Logistics Agency sold off the stockpiles over decades, with the last of the stockpiled tungsten sold last year. Incredibly, even after supply chain concerns became an urgent concern for all sectors of the economy, the stockpiles were not replenished or the sales even halted.

Today, U.S. stockpiles are depleted, and we are reliant on China and, to a lesser but still significant degree, on Russia for essential metals. The quickest way for the next president to undo this dangerous reliance is to begin replenishing the stockpile starting immediately after taking office.

Using existing legal authority, the U.S. government could guarantee “offtakes,” essentially a government contract to purchase a set quantity of material over a set period. These offtakes, negotiated transparently, would allow mining companies to obtain favorable financing to open new mines or expand existing operations.

These deals must become deeply entrenched in the United States economy. If a contract is signed for 10 years, mining and manufacturing companies, and their workers, both unionized and not, would benefit from reliable supplies of raw materials at reasonably predictable prices. It is unlikely, once this system takes root in the U.S. economy, that any future administration would risk the political blowback of undoing the program.

But can we be confident that a program designed almost a century ago will still work now? We need look no farther than China, our chief economic rival, to know that it will. China is running laps around the United States on this issue.

China Minmetals is one of the largest mineral trading companies in the world, but it is also just an arm of the Chinese government with a shiny coat of paint. Minmetals operates under the same idea that the United States government should be adopting, a government program directly involved in the mineral trade. It works well in communist China and it will work even better in free market America.

This stockpile would also be a strategic boon to United States foreign policy. When the U.S has amassed enough of these strategic materials, it can end our reliance on unfriendly foreign powers. When foreign powers meddle in democracies, or start wars with U.S allies, the United States could fully cut off imports from those powers, depriving them of the revenue they desperately need.

To make the stockpiling program more efficient, the government will need the authority to more closely police commodity traders to ensure that when the United States embargoes imports from an adversary, the traders can’t make a profit finding work arounds. The current situation of placing sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, while remaining reliant on Russian exports of gas and oil, is exactly the situation we never want to find ourselves in again.

The first Trump Administration was making bold strides towards solving our supply chain issues before COVID. Regardless of who is the next president, their administration needs to make strategic stockpiles a permanent part of U.S. security strategy.
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Lewis Black is a Director, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Almonty Industries, the only major tungsten mining company outside China and Russia. Its mines are located in Spain, Portugal, and South Korea.