Trade dispute
Rare earths: China indicates EU faster permits
Companies worldwide are concerned about supplying rare earths from Monopoly Land China. At least for the EU, Beijing indicates a accommodation – but not without consideration.
China has promised to process applications from European companies to export rare earth faster. At a meeting with EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic in Paris during the week, China’s Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao said that the People’s Republic of Messe was of great importance to the concerns of the Europeans, said a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce in Beijing.
China is ready to set up a “green channel” for applications that met the conditions in order to speed up the exam. In return, Wang hopes that the European side is taking measures so that the trade of high-tech products with China is easier, said the spokesman.
Industry warns of consequences
Beijing had seven rare earths in the customs dispute in the customs dispute with the United States and magnets made from them with export controls. The result: companies had to have the export of these urgently needed for electric motors or sensors. Raw materials with elaborate applications.
Companies worldwide, such as in Europe and the USA, are very concerned about the restriction. In Beijing, the EU Chamber of Commerce said that its member companies were recently given a little more licenses.
Meanwhile, German industry warned again of production stops. “We are threatened with a metal crisis, similar to the energy crisis in 2022, when Russia was no longer a gas,” said the general manager of the Federal Association of German Industry (BDI), Wolfgang Niedermark, the “Spiegel”. The auto industry, mechanical and plant engineering as well as energy and defense technologies are particularly affected: “With electric motors, robotics or drones, import dependence is not only high, but system-critical.”
Exchange of blows between the USA and China
Access to rare earths should also be an important topic in the planned trade discussion of the USA and China on Monday in London. The meeting had announced US President Donald Trump. At first there was no confirmation from Beijing.
Trump had assured that China would resume delivery of rare earths. The People’s Republic is a main processor of the metals, but depends on high-tech products such as certain equipment for aircraft or chip design software from abroad. For Beijings, the United States had recently restricted the export of this technology to China.
dpa
Source: Stern
