Beijing’s new export controls on uncommon earths go properly past proscribing entry to a essential expertise enter, in response to a former White Home advisor.
On Thursday, China’s commerce ministry mentioned that beginning on Dec. 1 a license can be required for overseas corporations to export merchandise with greater than 0.1% of uncommon earths from China or which are made with Chinese language manufacturing expertise.
That prompted President Donald Trump to announce Friday that he’ll impose an extra 100% tariff on China and restrict U.S. exports of software program. However whereas it appeared like the newest tit-for-tat alternate within the U.S.-China commerce battle, there’s way more at stake.
“We should not miss the fundamental point on rare earths: China has crafted a policy that gives it the power to forbid any country on Earth from participating in the modern economy,” Dean Ball, who served as a senior advisor within the White Home Workplace of Science and Know-how Coverage earlier this yr, wrote on X on Saturday.
“They can do this because they diligently built industrial capacity no one else had the fortitude to build. They were willing to tolerate costs—financial and environmental and otherwise—to do it. Now the rest of the world must do the same.”
China has a stranglehold on uncommon earths, producing greater than 90% of the world’s processed uncommon earths and uncommon earth magnets. They’re used throughout industries, from the tech sector to automakers and protection contractors.
They’re so essential that U.S. automotive corporations have curbed manufacturing because of uncommon earth shortages as China has leveraged the provision to counter Trump’s tariffs.
Whereas ongoing talks between Washington and Beijing had eased entry considerably, commerce tensions have been simmering forward of the newest flare-up on Friday.
For instance, the U.S. moved to limit different international locations’ exports of semiconductor-related merchandise to China. And this previous week, the U.S. introduced port charges on Chinese language ships, prompting Beijing to impose an identical charge on U.S. ships docking at Chinese language ports. China additionally launched an antitrust investigation into U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm.
“In other words, the United States can cut China off from the chips of today, but China can make it vastly harder to build the chips and other advanced technologies of tomorrow,” Michael Froman, president of the Council on Overseas Relations and a former U.S. Commerce Consultant, mentioned in a Substack publish on Friday.
Economist Robin Brooks, a senior fellow on the Brookings Establishment, noticed that markets count on Trump’s new China tariff menace will backfire on the U.S.
However he rejected the concept China has the higher hand over the U.S., saying in a publish on Sunday that its exporters are struggling steep drops in income because of Trump’s tariffs.
“This means that China may be using rare earths to escalate the stand-off with the US because it has no other choice,” Brooks defined. “The hit to its export sector is just too considerable, making it necessary to raise the stakes in an effort to bring US tariffs down.”
For its half, Beijing remained defiant, with the commerce ministry saying Sunday that China doesn’t desire a tariff battle however can also be not afraid of 1. It additionally mentioned the export controls usually are not a ban on uncommon earth shipments however are a sovereign proper.
Former White Home advisor Ball, who’s now a senior fellow on the Basis for American Innovation, mentioned China’s strict uncommon earth controls symbolize a chance for the remainder of the world to construct a brand new provide chain that may face up to weaponization by anybody nation.
“Always remember that supply is elastic,” he added. “If our lives depend on it, we can surmount many challenges far faster than the policy planners in Beijing, Brussels, and Washington realize.”
Fortune International Discussion board returns Oct. 26–27, 2025 in Riyadh. CEOs and international leaders will collect for a dynamic, invitation-only occasion shaping the way forward for enterprise. Apply for an invite.
