China defends rare earth quotas as in line with WTO
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A worker waters the site of a rare earth metals mine at Nancheng county, Jiangxi province December 30, 2010.
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BEIJING |
BEIJING (Reuters) - China defended its export controls on rare earth minerals on Thursday, saying that they were in line with World Trade Organization rules, after a government move to slash export quotas on rare earths sparked trade concerns.
China, which produces about 97 percent of the global supply of the metals used in the production of numerous high-tech products, cut its export quota by 35 percent for the first half of 2011 compared with a year earlier, saying it wanted to conserve reserves.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu reiterated at a regular news briefing in Beijing that the quotas were necessary for environmental protection.
"This accords with relevant WTO rules," she said. "In the future, China will continue to supply rare earths to the international market and will take effective management steps over their export in accordance with WTO rules."
The foreign ministry does not set China's policy on rare earths.
China has refused U.S. requests to end export restraints on rare earths that have alarmed trade partners, and Washington could complain to the WTO, which judges international trade disputes, the U.S. Trade Representative office said last week.
The rare earths issue adds to the growing list of trade-related disputes between China and the United States, which has accused China of poorly enforcing intellectual property rights and for its indigenous innovation policies that discriminate against foreign companies.
Prices have surged for rare earth minerals since the authorities in Beijing slashed exports by 40 percent this summer.
Beijing said the curbs were aimed at ensuring supplies for Chinese clean energy companies it is trying to promote internationally, but it has also said its dominance as a producer should give it more control over global prices.
A European Commission spokesman said the European Union had noted the latest quota figures and expected China to respect recent assurances of a guarantee of rare earth supplies to Europe.
Wind turbines and hybrid cars are among the biggest users of rare earth minerals, a little-known class of 17 related elements that analysts say are facing a global supply crunch as demand swells. The minerals also are used in some weapons systems.
U.S. makers of high-tech products such as Apple Inc's iPads and various Japanese companies have been scrambling to secure reliable supplies of the minerals outside of China as Beijing steadily reduces export allocations.
Beijing has long insisted that other countries should share the responsibility for developing rare earths.
"The international community has a joint responsibility to ensure the supply of rare earths," Jiang said. "Other nations that have rare earth resources should proactively develop and make use of them, to jointly shoulder responsibility for global supplies."
China has cautioned that it had not decided on quotas for the second half of the year.
(Additional reporting by Sabrina Mao, writing by Sui-Lee Wee, Editing by Chris Lewis)
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China INC and its advocates say China INC is not in a position to challenge US supremacy – but it does not have to front on – this is why China INC is utilizing its pray book “Ultimate War” which necessarily avoids direct confrontation in the beginning – this carried out by various surrogates such as North Korea, Iran, Burma and other States causing the Democracies trouble as in the Sudan.
Also its doctrine underlines the diplomatic and economic war which needs to be carried out concurrently. Russia has been a particularly amiable bedfellow for China INC in this regard. The China INC and Russian reaction to the recent Korean crises underlines this relationship. One must say it is not going to be in Russia’s interests in the long term.
The question as to whether not an entity, being it an individual or a State is prone to violence is not the quality or quantity of weaponry as we see with the Islamic terrorism but the text upon which entity base their actions.
Sahr Johnny, Sierra Leone’s ambassador to Beijing “The Chinese just come and do it. They don’t start to hold meetings about environmental impact assessment, human rights, bad governance and good governance.”
Reflection on a statement made by the US Chamber of commerce to the US International Trade Commission in June 2010 “In effect rather than working to address the long-standing problems in its trade and investment sectors, China is using the weakness of its regulatory and enforcement regimes to provide greater competitive advantage to its companies.”
The fact is even apart from instituting draconian methods of controlling information internally and externally reflective of oppressive dictatorships we can see the text “Ultimate War” applauded in the highest levels of the China INC elite being represented in the above two statements.
What are we seeing? A complete disregard for other. Nothing is done to get in the way of obtaining a key element be it iron ore, gold, wheat, trade scientific or military secrets – human rights mean absolutely nothing to China INC.
China is expected to have a global force by 2050 which is relatively not that far away with the first battlegrounds the South China Sea and the Yellow sea as we can see being joined now.
If you had a world power or even a small power, whatever military means they had at their disposal, with the text “Ultimate War” in their right hand rather than the text “The United States Constitution” what would you expect over the short term let alone the long term?
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