Politicized fragmentation is the wrong prescription

According to Reuters, G7 countries, led in part by France, have convened discussions aimed at curbing what they describe as China's "grip" on critical mineral supply chains, even considering the creation of a permanent coordinating mechanism. Parallel reports by Euronews highlight cooperation among the European Union, the United States and Japan to restructure supply chains for the crucial raw materials.

Yet this is putting prescription before diagnosis.

The modern global supply system is facing obstacles at a time when the world's largest economy has increasingly embraced tariffs, export controls and financial sanctions as instruments of statecraft. Trade has been weaponized; interdependence, once celebrated as a stabilizing force, is now treated as a vulnerability. Inevitably, such actions reverberate across supply chains that were built on assumptions of relative openness and predictability.