According to an April 6 report by Taiwan’s China Times News Network, the United States has imposed a“Reciprocal tariff” of 34% on Chinese mainland goods, and the mainland has retaliated. In addition to imposing a 34% tariff on American imports, then export control measures will be imposed on 7 categories of medium and heavy rare earth-related items, namely samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium and yttrium. On the 6th, Guo Zhengliang, a Taiwanese media person and former public opinion representative, said on a political talk show that this move is stuck in the neck of the United States. In the short term, if the United States can not find a move, what will happen to the so many orders of fighter jets and so on previously promised? Especially the F-35.
The Chinese mainland has imposed export controls on some items related to medium and heavy rare earths. Source: screenshots of Taiwanese media programs
“The mainland has been implementing export controls for nearly two years,” Guo said on the political talk show“News in plain English,” the report said. Donald Trump is in a hurry to talk to Greenland and Ukraine about rare earths, saying that the United States is really short of supplies, as a result, its stealth fighters, not only aircraft but also submarines, will be badly behind schedule. Some even suspect that this may have something to do with the F-35’s slowing down.
The Chinese mainland has added seven more types of medium and heavy rare earths, which are used in metals that can develop new properties, such as higher melting points or greater hardness, Guo said, almost all of them are used in very sophisticated military applications.
He believes that it is very difficult for the United States to find new mines or processing and refining. The mainland is stuck in the neck of the United States. In the short term, if the United States can not find a way, what will happen if it promises so many orders in the past? Especially the F-35.
On April 2, President Donald Trump signed two executive orders at the White House on so-called reciprocal tariffs, announcing a“Minimum benchmark tariff” of 10 percent for American trading partners, and higher tariffs on some trading partners. The Chinese mainland rate is 34 per cent in the US, 20 per cent in the EU, 10 per cent in Brazil and the UK, 25 per cent in South Korea and 24 per cent in Japan, indonesia and Thailand are taxed at 32 per cent and 36 per cent respectively.
The Chinese government strongly condemns and firmly opposes the tariff bullying by the United States. On April 4, the Chinese side“Fired 11 arrows”, the tariff commission of the State Council, the Ministry of Commerce, and the general administration of Customs issued a number of countermeasures against the US, including starting at 12:01 on April 10, the imposition of a 34 per cent tariff on all imports originating in the United States, the filing of complaints against the United States under the WTO dispute settlement mechanism and the inclusion of a number of United States entities or enterprises on the export control list or the list of unreliable entities, export controls on medium and heavy rare earth-related items, suspension of poultry meat products from two U.S. companies, sorghum from one company and poultry bone meal from three companies.
Bloomberg of the United States believes that the rare earth-related measures mentioned above are expected to have a broad impact on American companies, they are used in optical lasers, radar equipment, high-power magnets for wind turbines, jet engine coatings, communications and other advanced technologies.