The Electric: China Has Signaled that LFP Batteries are Strategic. Here's How Trump Should Respond

China has imposed export controls on two items on which it holds an almost complete global monopoly: the world’s currently most popular electric vehicle battery, and the metal used in the most promising battery of the future.

The moves come a week after the Pentagon acted in a very big way to weaken China’s grip on rare earth magnets, funding a rare earths buildout by U.S. miner MP Materials and becoming its largest shareholder.

The Trump administration did not immediately respond to the latest Chinese action in the country’s tit-for-tat trade war with the U.S., which President Donald Trump kicked off this year. The consequences of the move are so serious that they should spur Trump to do for battery materials what he did for rare earths.