Hong Kong
Cnn
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On Friday, China reported that it would approve of exporting minerals from rare earths to the United States, a few hours after the White House officials declared that the two parties had concluded an agreement, in what would be a major breakthrough after weeks of negotiations on American access to key materials.
The rare earths – essential in everything, from everyday electronics to fighter planes – had become a key objective of commercial friction between the two largest economies in the world in recent weeks when their tariff climbing turned into a supply of supply chain.
“China will approve the export application of controlled items that meet the conditions in accordance with the law. The United States will cancel a series of restrictive measures taken against China accordingly,” the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.
The declaration was designed in response to a question that specifically referenced how “China will accelerate the export of rare land to the United States”.
The Chinese declaration followed the comments of American president Donald Trump and his trade secretary Howard Lutnick, confirming Thursday that the two parties had entered into an agreement.
The agreement seems to formalize an understanding of the two parties earlier this month in London, which, at the time, was to be approved by Trump and the Chinese chief Xi Jinping.
Thursday, the American secretary of trade, Howard Lutnick, was quoted by Bloomberg News as saying that China “will deliver us rare earths” and once they have done, “we will suppress our countermeasures”, referring to the Export terrbs The United States imposed on China in May while American officials accused Beijing not to honor an agreement concluded this month in Geneva, holding rare land exports.
During a White House event on Thursday, Trump said: “We have just signed with China yesterday,” without developing.
On Friday, in its declaration, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said that it hoped that the two parties could “continuously improve consensus, reduce misunderstandings, strengthen cooperation and jointly promote health, stable and sustainable development of economic and commercial relations in China-US and the United States”.
China controls approximately 90% of the global treatment of rare earths, according to the International Energy Agency.
The two countries last month in Geneva reached an agreement To defuse the high prices that had led to a de facto commercial embargo, but this agreement quickly collapsed due to the frustrations of the Trump administration according to which China did not raise the controls of exports on the rare earths which it had imposed following the so-called Reciprocal prices of Trump placed on China in April.
The United States, in retaliation, has imposed export limits on flea software, ethane and reaction engines, while threatening to revoke the American visas of Chinese students. China said it was complying with the agreement and blamed Washington for renamed its promises.
Officials on both sides were then returned to the negotiating table in London in June.
After these discussions, Trump Announced an agreement had been reached, pending the approval of the two national leaders, and that the two parties had agreed to alleviate the export restrictions. The United States will also allow Chinese students to attend American universities, Trump suggested.
“The magnets and all the necessary rare earths will be provided in advance by China,” he wrote on social networks at the time.
Reuters reported this week that the US trade department had enabled ethane merchants to charge ethane on ships for China. But he prohibited them from unloading in China without authorization – the signs of the signs interpret while the administration is preparing to lift the borders.
As part of the dual -use license regime introduced for rare earths in April, exporters are required to request approvals for each sending to customers in any country and to subject the documentation to verify the planned final use of these documents.
While China has declared in recent weeks on several occasions that it had “accelerated” the approvals of the export licenses for rare earths for “compliant” applications, the experts and initiates of the industry told CNN that many companies still had difficulty obtaining sufficient supplies of these elements and magnets.
Analysts also expect double use export restrictions of China always prohibit shipments to military suppliers, leaving American defense entrepreneurs without access to these materials.