Even though US President Donald Trump, like, put a pause on his “reciprocal tariffs” on major American trading buddies last month, he totally cranked up the penalties on Chinese goods. This move just added more drama to the already shaky trade relationship between Beijing and Washington, and threw America’s defense industries into a loop. One of Beijing’s sneaky tactics in this trade war has been to slap export controls on rare earth elements, which are super important for making key commercial and military products and space technology. China is like the big cheese when it comes to rare earths – they produce and use the most in the world, like 90% of it all. They pretty much rule the production game.
The potential fallout from Beijing’s little stunt has gotten the US defense industry all jittery – rare earths are like the golden ticket for making military gear, like jet engines, radar, avionics, and other fancy electronic systems. China’s export restrictions on rare earth elements kicked in back in April as payback for Trump’s decision to jack up tariffs on most Chinese products to 54%, which later got bumped up to a whopping 125% after a series of back-and-forth trade measures between the two countries. So far this year, Washington has slapped tariffs totaling 145% on Chinese imports, bringing the effective tariff rate to around 156%.
Seven types of medium and heavy rare earths – samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium, and yttrium-related items – got put on an export control list on April 4, according to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce. These rare earth elements now need special export licenses to leave China, so Beijing can basically control the flow of shipments by limiting the number of licenses they give out. These export controls apply to shipments to all countries, not just the US, and there’s a chance they could straight-up ban exports altogether.
Not really sure why this matters, but the US is kinda sweating over China’s move to tighten the reins on rare earth exports. These elements are crucial for making all sorts of cool tech that goes into military gear, so any hiccup in the supply chain could cause some serious problems. And with the tariff war heating up between the US and China, things are getting even more complicated. Who knows how this whole thing is gonna play out, but it’s definitely gonna be a wild ride for America’s defense industries.
