China, which has been blocking shipments of crucial minerals to Japan for the last month, has now quietly halted shipments of some of those same materials to the United States and Europe, three industry officials said on Tuesday.
The Chinese action, involving rare earth minerals that are crucial to manufacturing many advanced products, seems certain to further ratchet up already rising trade and currency tensions with the West. Until recently, China typically sought quick and quiet accommodations on trade issues. But the interruption in rare earth supplies is the latest sign from Beijing that Chinese officials are willing to use their growing economic muscle.
“The embargo is expanding” beyond Japan, said one of the three rare earth industry officials, all of whom insisted on anonymity for fear of business retaliation by Chinese authorities. They said Chinese customs officials imposed the broader shipment restrictions Monday morning, hours after a top Chinese official had summoned international news media Sunday night to denounceUnited States trade actions.
You got to read down into the story to find it, but it is there: the MONEY QUOTE…….”Congress is considering legislation to provide loan guarantees for the re-establishment of rare earth mining and manufacturing in the United States ”
Oh, of course, another effort to show they are on top of these things. Of course, that would not have been necessary if they had not killed all those mining industries with over regulation.
But at the same time, this would mean more jobs in the American mining industry…….or at least it seems so to me.
Can you give me an example of mining regulations we should eliminate?
Warren, a little reading would show that the situation is not so simple. There have been environmental issues at the US mine (and there is only one US mine, BTW), and it’s more than likely that the Chinese manage to hold their prices down by trashing the area around their mine(s)– wastes from this sort of mine are seriously nasty, what between radioactivity and heavy metal poisoning. But it was Chinese underselling that shut down the US mine, not the EPA.
that’s probably true no. 4
i don’t like china and worry about how we have become so beholden to them financially and otherwise.
no one has ever explained how globalization has been beneficial to our country other than people being able to buy cheap crap.
no. 1 writes “Of course, that would not have been necessary if they had not killed all those mining industries with over regulation.”
…except for that massey mine in west va that killed 25 men back in april and the many mining companies the employ mountain top removal techniques that devastate streams and forests and valleys with pollution.