>>52396
Private investors won't invest in Europe if Europe is in decline.
Europe won't be be able to invest massive amounts through public means either, given that most of those nations are in too much debt as it is, though Germany is more financially responsible than most of the others and so they have some room to move in that regard.

Energy in Europe is a huge issue and nobody in Europe seems to have a realistic long term plan to address it.

The west as a whole is worried about China's dominance in rare earths and solar panels. Australia benefits from that to a degree as we have rare earths we just aren't a major miner or processor of many of them, but that's going to change.

European industry is being strangled by China so tariffs are probably necessary anyway Electric cars are a good example of this. But the issue there is that the US is also a huge industrial power and also competes with Europe(and might introduce tariffs on Europe as well).
But tariffs are a quadruple edged sword, yes they make Chinese goods less competitive but it will raise the price of imported inputs for European manufacturing(such as Chinese rare earths), it cuts off a huge Market to Europe(China) and it will cause inflation in some goods in the EU as the price of goods that are tariffed goes up.

Africa has a lot of potential of course but it's also Africa. Rare earths won't do Europe much good if they are in a jungle with no infrastructure in an area held by separatist warlords or a corrupt government(well it's Africa, all governments there are corrupt). It would still need money to set up such operations as well.