Trade
China Turns Up Heat on Trade With Rare Earths Tech Curbs
- Move throws up a new hurdle in race to boost Western supplies
- China has come to dominate refining over the past 30 years
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China will halt the export of a range of rare-earth technologies, potentially making it harder for the US and its allies to bolster Western supplies of strategic raw materials.
While Beijing already had some limits in place, it has now widened a list of technologies that cannot be transferred overseas to include the processing of rare-earth metals and magnets, according to a document from the Ministry of Commerce. The move by the world’s dominant supplier — arguably the most significant rare-earth move from China in over a decade — puts the vital materials front and center as a tit-for-tat trade war on technology worsens.