Does the United States Need More Ore?

I'm actually asking.

Superman #691 by James Robinson and Renato Guedes (2009)

The President of the DC Universe United States is about to sign a free-trade agreement with the nation of Markovia, it seems primarily because of an interest in its ore reserves.

Particularly with iron more, the United States uses most of its stock to produce steel, though this is pretty much true throughout the world. The United States Geological Survey estimates that in 2004 there were more than 800 billion tons of crude ore throughout the world, with 230 billion or so containing iron. The U.S. had about 110 billion crude ore, with about 27 billion tons of iron. They accounted for about 4% of the world's iron ore output and 5% of consumption.

Regarding imports and exports, according to the International Trade Centre, the U.S. accounted for about $611 million in iron ore imports, which is about 1.5% of the world's total. This ranked it number 11 in imports in 2005. It exported about $580 million.
What does this actually mean for whether the United States actually needs more? Steel production is cheaper in foreign countries, so in tough times the United States has been importing more steel from Canada and Brazil.

Furthermore, China's demand for ore has been rapidly growing in recent years, accounting for an astonishing 45% of imports. This has had a considerable effect on ore exports not only in the U.S., but also in Brazil and Australia, who continued to invest large amounts of funds towards increasing production. Taking a look at the ITC data for exports, we can see that from 2001 to 2003, the United States had maintained about $230 - $250 million in iron ore exports. Then in 2004, exports rose to $337 million, and shot up again in 2005 to about $580 million.

Of course, imports also significantly increased in 2005 from 2004, going from $451 million to $611 million.

I wonder if there's another reason the United States is so passionately interested in Markovia. Any ideas?