Posted on 03/26/2014 9:29:08 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
The World Trade Organization on Wednesday confirmed that China had lost a case on rare-earth metals, the latest setback for Beijing in a dispute marked by price spikes and widespread concern among technology firms and defense-related users of the critical materials.
The Geneva-based trade body and the office of the U.S. trade representative, which brought the original case two years ago, confirmed China's policies were found in violation of global trade rules. The public announcement comes almost five months after Chinese officials said they had lost the case, and four months after the deadline for the WTO to inform the parties involved in the case.
The WTO said China's export duties on rare-earth metals, molybdenum and tungsten are inconsistent with its obligations in the organization. It also ruled against Beijing's export quotas on the materials and its move to restrict their trade.
China has said the restrictions are in place for reasons of environmental protection. The WTO ruling says those aren't valid reasons for limiting exports.
Rare earths are the metals at the bottom of the periodic table that are exceptionally useful in many high-tech applications, from lasers to solar panels to electric-car batteries to smartphones.
The ruling covers 17 rare-earth materials such as thulium, ytterbium, lutetium that are used in electronic and high-tech products. It also covers tungsten and molybdenum, which have many industrial uses.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
I Just Wanna Celebrate.
Richard Blum takes a bow.
Hear hear!
Obama’s EPA will take care of that. The Rockies, Sierras, the Cascades, and the regions around them are loaded with REE’s, and we can’t touch them because the feds say so, for absolutely no reason, because the feds say so.
Polite company prevents me from telling all of you good people what they can do with their edicts. In the mean time, the scrap electronics stream provides a concentrated source of REE’s ripe for the picking.
How many divisions does the WTO have?
> The WTO said China’s export duties on rare-earth metals, molybdenum and tungsten are inconsistent with its obligations in the organization. It also ruled against Beijing’s export quotas on the materials and its move to restrict their trade. China has said the restrictions are in place for reasons of environmental protection.
Oh yeah, enviromental protection, of course. /s
Thanks 1rudeboy.
It doesn't matter if our military allowed AlGore to shut down the only American tungsten mine and then hawk its strategic stocks of tungsten with which to make booolets, turbine fans, tool steel... you know, stuff we need to fight a war. Bush not only did not replenish those stocks, he never interrupted the illegal sale.
BTW, Feinswine closed off access to some of the world’s largest deposits of rare earth minerals here in California with the Desert Protection Act. Needless to say, hubby Richard Blum was well positioned with investments in China to take advantage of the resulting shortages.
Too late, we’ve already transfered our technology to have the products made in China.
Raise the import tariffs, and move production back to the U.S. until we are at full employment and only the least valued jobs are off-shored.
I love Rare Earth Man! Get Ready 20 minutes long man!
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