Bloomberg Names China's Weapon In Trade War With Trump
7- 7.04.2025, 12:38
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Beijing enters confrontation with Washington.
China is using rare earth metals as a weapon in its trade war with U.S. President Donald Trump. Last week, Beijing expanded this practice by announcing new export restrictions in response to the Republican’s actions, Bloomberg reports.
In early April, Trump announced the introduction of trade tariffs on 211 countries and territories, adding to existing duties. For China, the tariff was set at 34%, but with previous measures included, the total duties reached 54%. As a retaliatory measure, Beijing imposed a 34% tariff on all American imports and tightened export controls on seven Chinese rare earth elements: samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium, and yttrium.
Although this is not an outright ban, the decision implies that authorities will closely monitor any exports, particularly evaluating who the end buyer is and for what purpose. According to Bloomberg, this move threatens to destabilize global supplies of key materials used in high-tech industries, including electric vehicles and weapons manufacturing.
China is the global leader in rare earth metal production. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, China accounts for nearly 70% of the world’s production, and the United States relies on these imports. In previous years, Beijing implemented similar restrictions on other critical resources such as gallium, germanium, graphite, and antimony.
The latest measures did not include neodymium and praseodymium, which are used in high-powered magnets. Experts interviewed by Bloomberg suggested that China excluded them to retain the option of imposing restrictions in the future.
China’s Ministry of Commerce stated that controlling dual-use goods, which can be used for military purposes, "serves the interests of national security, regional stability, and global peace."
Trump, responding to China’s countermeasures, wrote on Truth Social that Chinese authorities had 'panicked' over U.S. tariffs and made the wrong move.
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