The Trump administration is considering executive action to suspend a regulation, backed by human-rights groups and loathed by many businesses, that requires a swath of industries to investigate whether their products contain metals that could have been sold by armed groups.

The proposed executive action, drafted last week and reviewed Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal, would suspend for two years the so-called conflict-minerals rule, which business groups have fought in court, saying its requirements are costly and burdensome.