Why Canada Wasn't Among the Initial Signatories of the Pax Silica Declaration
A Strategic Phased Launch in the New Era of AI Supply Chain Security
In the high-stakes game of global tech dominance, the Trump administration just dropped a clever new player on the board: the Pax Silica Declaration. Signed on December 12, 2025, in Washington, D.C., this non-binding agreement unites seven key nations, the United States, Australia, Israel, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and the United Kingdom, in a bold push to secure supply chains for critical minerals, semiconductors, and artificial intelligence infrastructure. The name itself is a witty nod to history: "Pax" for peace and prosperity, "Silica" for the silicon that powers the chips driving the AI era. Think of it as the G7 for the age of compute, designed to counter China's overwhelming grip on rare earth elements and advanced tech ecosystems.
The initiative, spearheaded by Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg, aims to foster joint research, development, manufacturing, and infrastructure projects among trusted partners. It explicitly seeks to reduce vulnerabilities from coercive dependencies, code for Beijing's export restrictions on rare earths, which China controls at roughly 85-90% of global processing, and to rival the Belt and Road Initiative with aligned investment screening, export controls, and proactive supply chain security. Helberg has called it a "game changer," emphasizing coordinated economic security to block overcapacity and protect choke points in the global AI stack, from minerals to energy and logistics.

