WTO fails to back China's appeal over rare earths

[dlclong]

The World Trade Organization ruled on Thursday against supporting China's appeal over restrictions on exports of rare earths, tungsten and molybdenum, forcing the country to improve its regulations on these raw materials.
"China has not demonstrated that the export quotas that China applies to various forms of rareearths tungsten and molybdenum by virtue of the series of measures at issue are justified." the WTO said.
The Commerce MInistry said in a statement, "China will carefully evaluate the ruling and strengthen the regulation of resources with measures consistent with the WTO rules to boost resource protection and uphold fair competition."
China supplies more than 90 percent of the world's rare earths — key elements in defense industry components and modern technology ranging from iPhones to wind turbines.
Prices of rare earths soared after China, which holds 20 percent of the global reserves, imposed strict export quotas in 2010.
Li Chenggang, director of the Department of Treaty and Law at the ministry, said, "We aren't surprised by the ruling, as the panel held that China's export restrictions on these materials were inconsistent with WTO rules, but we insist that the purpose is to protect the environment and exhaustible natural resources.

"The ruling may not be a bad thing in the long term if it can help to increase effective global rules on exports of resources," Li said.

"We will use the ruling to examine whether other countries' regulatory measures on key resources are in line with the WTO rules, as China is a major importer of global resources."

In March 2012, the United States, the Europe Union and Japan asked for consultations with China on its restrictions on exports of the materials.

A panel was formed in September 2012 to look into the dispute, and a report on March 26 this year found that China's measures breached the WTO rules. The US appealed on technical grounds on April 8 and China appealed on April 17.

Feng Jun, an analyst at the Shanghai WTO Affairs Consultation Center, said, "The export restrictions on these materials should have been placed on production rather than exports.

"The ruling will help to remove barriers on trading of the materials and leave the market to play a decisive role in allocating the resources."

Chen Zhanheng, deputy secretary-general of the China Rare Earths Industry Association, said the ruling is "not optimistic" for the industry.

"The removal of export quotas, probably next year, will increase the environmental protection challenge. Production will also increase with global competition intensifying."



robbers Always robbers, Some robbers, on the one hand to force-style free trade as an excuse, Forced China exports of rare earth resources,
However, they use rare earth manufacturing weapons and high-tech products, but prohibits the sale to China, Double standard, time-tested.
On the one hand say that the Chinese environment is poor, on the otherhand Ignore China rare earth mining damage to the environment.
WTO only represent the robber'S interests

 

[Okemos]

Just ban all small unregulated mining companies for heaven's sake. They are poisoning China! I hate private mining companies. Despicable bunch.

"China will carefully evaluate the ruling and strengthen the regulation of resources with measures consistent with the WTO rules to boost resource protection and uphold fair competition."

Source: WTO fails to back China's appeal over rare earths

Exactly, just cite environmental protection, and ban mining companies from mining rare earth. Easy.

 

[dlclong]

Just ban all small unregulated mining companies for heaven's sake. They are poisoning China! I hate private mining companies. Despicable bunch.

"China will carefully evaluate the ruling and strengthen the regulation of resources with measures consistent with the WTO rules to boost resource protection and uphold fair competition."

Source: WTO fails to back China's appeal over rare earths

Exactly, just cite environmental protection, and ban mining companies from mining rare earth. Easy.

yes ，Not restrict exports, we should limit mining. In our own country, we have the right to do our own thing and protect our environment. Learning U.S.

 

[Raphael]

Yes, stop mining them. They can't force us to mine .

 

[Beidou2020]

More rare earth metals are smuggled out of China illegally than is legally exported.
This is a fact.

 

[UnChosen]

Just nationalize the industry altogether and invoke national security law already. China seriously isn't communist enough when they need to be and is too communist when they don't need to be. Ditch some of those inefficient manufacturing companies and use the money to create state owned RE companies instead.

If the Chinese government can't even find a way around this they would become an utter joke. They can also just do what they are doing with gold right now...buy all the excess supply of rare earth as a strategy reserve stockpile and release them back into the market later when its beneficial to do so.

I wish my government would do something similar with our resource instead of sending it to the US at cut rate price and reimport the refined product at 20% higher than US prices even though we're right next door. It's not like the US won't ditch us the moment they find a domestic alternative, like they're doing with our proposed oil pipelines right now.

 

[IsaacNewton]

WTO is quite powerless. I bet China will make some other excuses and prolong the export restriction. There are simply too many loopholes and I don't think anyone wants to kick China out of WTO.

 

[Jlaw]

China joining wto biggest mistake.

 

[terranMarine]

China's government has approved the creation of two regional monopolies in the rare earth metals industry. The mergers, to take place by the end of this year, are the latest example of state-driven consolidation in the industry.
Inner Mongolia Baotou Steel Rare-Earth Hi-Tech Co. and Xiamen Tungsten Co. Ltd. announced on August 4 that they have been approved by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to lead the formation of the two groups.

The news comes as the government awaits a decision on its appeal to the World Trade Organization over its March ruling that China's export restrictions on rare earth minerals broke trade rules. The results of the appeal are expected soon.

China has nearly 40 percent of the world's reserves of rare earth metals, but meets about 90 percent of global demand. The 17 elements are used in industrial, military and high-tech products, such as smartphones, wind turbines, hybrid-car batteries and laser-guided weapons.

Other countries have been stepping up production in recent years to lessen dependence on Chinese production. China has tightened its exports using a quota policy, arguing that the restrictions are for environmental protection reasons.

Baogang Group, Baotou's parent company and a major steel producer, will handle the establishment of China North Rare Earth High Tech Co. Ltd., consolidating mining, smelting, separation and utilization companies in the northern region of Inner Mongolia. It will also include Gansu Rare Earth Group Co. Ltd.

The firm in coastal Xiamen will build a conglomerate covering the southern part of the country, with all related companies in Fujian Province except the state-owned metal giant China Minmetals Corp.

The two groups, one in the north and one in the south, will implement the government's quantity-control plan for rare earth mining, an industry source said.

The move will help the country maintain its pricing power for rare earth products because it might stop its export quota policy after the WTO ruling, an industry source told China News Service.

Establishing big groups might help eliminate inefficient production capacity, but might also hurt small companies and private mines, prompting them to use illegal means and grey channels to gain profits in order to survive amid fierce competition with state-owned enterprises, said Gao Yuxin, an analyst from Ruidow.com, a metals industry website.

Low prices have hurt some companies, the Securities Times reported. Minmetals Rare Earth, a listed subsidiary of the China Minmetals Corp., estimated a loss of 40 to 45 million yuan in the first half of the year.

In July, the industry ministry and the Ministry of Finance put forward a plan to provide capital support for the industry, with policies such as offering rewards to companies that pass environmental examinations.

The government is also setting up a rare earth metals reserve plan, with a scale expected to exceed 10,000 tons. Under the plan, the purchase price would be higher than the market price, and the added demand could stimulate the market, the China Securities Journal quoted an industry source as saying.

 

[Jlaw]

China's government has approved the creation of two regional monopolies in the rare earth metals industry. The mergers, to take place by the end of this year, are the latest example of state-driven consolidation in the industry.
Inner Mongolia Baotou Steel Rare-Earth Hi-Tech Co. and Xiamen Tungsten Co. Ltd. announced on August 4 that they have been approved by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to lead the formation of the two groups.

The news comes as the government awaits a decision on its appeal to the World Trade Organization over its March ruling that China's export restrictions on rare earth minerals broke trade rules. The results of the appeal are expected soon.

China has nearly 40 percent of the world's reserves of rare earth metals, but meets about 90 percent of global demand. The 17 elements are used in industrial, military and high-tech products, such as smartphones, wind turbines, hybrid-car batteries and laser-guided weapons.

Other countries have been stepping up production in recent years to lessen dependence on Chinese production. China has tightened its exports using a quota policy, arguing that the restrictions are for environmental protection reasons.

Baogang Group, Baotou's parent company and a major steel producer, will handle the establishment of China North Rare Earth High Tech Co. Ltd., consolidating mining, smelting, separation and utilization companies in the northern region of Inner Mongolia. It will also include Gansu Rare Earth Group Co. Ltd.

The firm in coastal Xiamen will build a conglomerate covering the southern part of the country, with all related companies in Fujian Province except the state-owned metal giant China Minmetals Corp.

The two groups, one in the north and one in the south, will implement the government's quantity-control plan for rare earth mining, an industry source said.

The move will help the country maintain its pricing power for rare earth products because it might stop its export quota policy after the WTO ruling, an industry source told China News Service.

Establishing big groups might help eliminate inefficient production capacity, but might also hurt small companies and private mines, prompting them to use illegal means and grey channels to gain profits in order to survive amid fierce competition with state-owned enterprises, said Gao Yuxin, an analyst from Ruidow.com, a metals industry website.

Low prices have hurt some companies, the Securities Times reported. Minmetals Rare Earth, a listed subsidiary of the China Minmetals Corp., estimated a loss of 40 to 45 million yuan in the first half of the year.

In July, the industry ministry and the Ministry of Finance put forward a plan to provide capital support for the industry, with policies such as offering rewards to companies that pass environmental examinations.

The government is also setting up a rare earth metals reserve plan, with a scale expected to exceed 10,000 tons. Under the plan, the purchase price would be higher than the market price, and the added demand could stimulate the market, the China Securities Journal quoted an industry source as saying.

China has no choice but to follow the rulings of the WTO as stated in he article The US is smart with this issue. They have a lot of rare earth materials but they do not mine it yet. They are waiting to use up China's rare earth, than they will mine it.

 

[cnleio]

China rare earth rise in price !

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

It's a joke.

If we are going to shut down rare earth mines to protect our environment, that's exactly what we'll do.

If export restrictions and quotas are not possible, we'll find other ways to do it.

Let others mine their own rare earths and sacrifice their own environment for this highly unprofitable industry.

 

[terranMarine]

China has no choice but to follow the rulings of the WTO as stated in he article The US is smart with this issue. They have a lot of rare earth materials but they do not mine it yet. They are waiting to use up China's rare earth, than they will mine it.

If the Americans want rare earth minerals they should mine their own.

 

[Jlaw]

If the Americans want rare earth minerals they should mine their own.

But they are not because it pollutes the environment. It's best if China cut back production. Prices will go up, you won't export as much and forces others to start mining their own.

 

[terranMarine]

But they are not because it pollutes the environment. It's best if China cut back production. Prices will go up, you won't export as much and forces others to start mining their own.

Hopefully this will do the trick.