Clinton Calls on China to Clarify Rare Earth Policy as Asia Tour Starts
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on China to clarify its policy on rare earth minerals after reports the Asian country curbed its exports to the U.S., Japan and Europe.
“I would welcome any clarification of their policy and hope that it means trade and commerce around these important materials will continue unabated and without any interference,” Clinton said at a press conference late yesterday in Honolulu with Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara.
China, the source of more than 90 percent of the world’s rare earths, in July reduced its second-half export quota for the minerals used in hybrid vehicles and weapons systems. Chinese customs officials are also further restricting shipments, according to industry participants and Japanese lawmakers. Maehara reiterated that Japan must diversify its supply source.
“Even if this problem did not exist, for 97 percent of these resources to come from China is certainly not appropriate,” he said. Clinton said the “entire world” has to seek alternate supplies of the metals.
Asked if she planned to raise the rare earth issue in her Oct. 30 meeting with Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo on the island of Hainan, Clinton said the meeting would focus on President Hu Jintao’s January visit to Washington.
‘Facts Are Murky’
The issue could come up when President Barack Obama meets with Hu Nov. 11 at the start of a meeting among Group of 20 leaders, said Jeff Bader, senior director for Asian affairs on Obama’s National Security Council.
“The facts are murky” surrounding China’s actions, Bader said at a briefing in Washington. “The goal is to ensure that the international market functions without hindrance in ways that satisfy the needs of major producer in the U.S. and elsewhere.”
Clinton also said uninhabited islands in the East China Sea at the center of a territorial dispute between Japan and China fall within Japan’s security concerns. The U.S. remains “committed” to its obligations to defend Japan, she said.
The two diplomats spent two hours discussing regional security issues, sanctions against Iran for its nuclear program, reconstruction work in Afghanistan and coordinating the agenda for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings in Japan next month and in the U.S. in 2011.
Alliance
“We have an unforgiving agenda, one that will take all of the strength of our deep and abiding friendship,” Clinton said in prepared remarks. She described the U.S.-Japan alliance as “the cornerstone of American strategic engagement in the Asia- Pacific.”
The discussion “was very good not just for the United States but for the stability and development of the region as a whole,” Maehara said.
Clinton is on a two-week Asia-Pacific tour to build on the Obama administration’s push to raise the U.S. profile in the region and build up multilateral institutions. She will address those themes in a policy speech later today.
Clinton’s trip, her sixth to the region as secretary of state, includes stops in Vietnam, Malaysia, Cambodia, Australia, New Zealand, energy-rich Papua New Guinea as well as China. In Vietnam, she will represent the U.S. at the East Asian Summit, a trade bloc the U.S. will fully join in 2011.
To contact the reporter on this story: Nicole Gaouette in Honolulu at ngaouette@bloomberg.net;
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bill Austin in Tokyo at billaustin@bloomberg.net
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