The Rare Earth Battle

(Joseph J. Dehner, Frost Brown Todd LLC)
An immediate response of China to the US announcement that it would launch a 301 inquiry aimed at the Chinese “green” technology sector is a rare earth counter-attack. In this reported highly protectionist move, China has temporarily halted exports to the US of rare earth materials. Used in making advanced technology products, rare earth materials are a variety of scarce minerals. China currently produces 95% of the world's trade in these important items, according to a New York Times article of October 19, 2010 - K Bradsher, “China is said to halt exports to US of some key minerals.” The report indicates that this is being done without any official announcement of such an embargo aimed at any particular country. Read more here.