The American secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent shakes hands with the Chinese Deputy Prime Minister, He Lifeng, during the bilateral meeting between the United States and China, in Geneva, Switzerland, on May 11, 2025.
Keystone / EDA / Martial Trezzini | Via Reuters
China has temporarily interrupted export restrictions targeting 28 American companies on the heels of the commercial truce of Beijing affected with the Trump administration during the weekend in Switzerland.
But China continues to block exports from this country of seven rare land metals to the United States, including defense, energy and automotive industries are based on these metals.
According to the Geneva Commercial Declaration, China has agreed to “adopt all the administrative measures necessary to suspend or remove non-tariff countermeasures taken from the United States since April 2, 2025.”
One of these countermeasures is the export borders for rare earths.
Asked about rare land controls at a regular press conference Thursday, the Chinese spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce said he had no information to provide.
On April 4, China announced a set of reprisals against the prices of the “liberation day” of President Donald Trump, in particular by placing the export restrictions on seven rare land metals: Samarium, Gadolinium, Terbium, Dysprosium, Lotétium, Scandium and Yttrium.
It is not known why rare earth controls were not included when the Chinese Ministry of Commerce has announced the softening of other non-carica countermeasures from April.
Wednesday, China withdrew 28 US companies from its export control list for double -use items for 90 days. He also removed 17 companies from his “unreliable entities list”, including 11 for 90 days.
On the same day, the Ministry of Commerce published a declaration on China’s efforts to allow the smuggling of rare earths and the need for broader government control of national security metals.
“All the departments should be that the complete control of strategic minerals is essential,” he said.
The vast majority of elements of rare land, or rees, imported in the United States come from China. They are considered by Beijing as an effective lever point in its commercial negotiations with Washington.
A social media account linked to the CCTV national diffuser alluded to their importance in commercial negotiations.
“With the American defense industries now” strangled by rare earth shortages “, what changes could occur in American weapons and equipment? Yuyuantian posted last Friday.
Many of the 28 American companies in terms of stay on double -use export restrictions are common objectives for Beijing sanctions, due to their activity in the defense sector.
The first 16 of these companies were added to the Chinese export control list on April 4, a few days after the announcement of Trump imposing steep prices on most products from China.
These companies include Universal Logistics Holdings,, CyberluxHudson Technologies and Oceanering International.
Beijing added a dozen other companies to the export list on April 9, the same day that Trump announced a three -month break on prices for each country except China. Companies hit this day include Teledyne Brown Engineering, Kratos Unfulfilled and insited air systems.
Any company that wishes to export double use items from China must first obtain the approval of the country’s Ministry of Commerce.
It is prohibited for 17 companies in the “unreliable list of entities” to import or export from China and make new investments in the country.
Companies who have granted this list include several drone manufacturers such as Sierra Nevada Corp. and Kratos.
China added 11 of these companies to the list on April 4 and six others on April 9.
