China Now Halting Shipments of Rare Earth Minerals To US 738
blackraven14250 writes with news that China, after putting at least a temporary stop to rare earth exports to Japan, is now doing the same with exports to the US; according to the linked article, this is in response to recent US promises to investigate certain Chinese trade practices.
Tit for tat (Score:2, Informative)
American women have large, pendulous breasts. Chinese women have small, pert breasts. Japanese women also have small, pert breasts. The difference is that Americans and Chinese have no cultural aversion to getting tattoos.
Therefore, when the tit comes to tat, the Japanese with their small, pert breasts will remain unadorned.
Americans will continue with their behemoth breasts.
Chinese will continue with their ink-filled breasts.
And everyone will be the poorer for it.
Re:Wal-Mart should follow suit (Score:1, Informative)
Number one employer in the US is the Federal Government.
Re:Easy solution (Score:1, Informative)
In your scenario it wouldn't be China holding the world hostage, it would be the US. If you haven't noticed yet, the type of embargos described in TFA have been standard operating procedure for the US for some time now.
Re:Easy solution (Score:5, Informative)
When they are a sole supplier, it is terrorism.
Sigh....
terrorism-noun
1. the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, esp. for political purposes.
2. the state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization.
3. a terroristic method of governing or of resisting a government.
By your reasoning, if Apple decided they didn't want to sell me an iPhone, Apple would be engaging in terrorism.
Re:Wal-Mart should follow suit (Score:2, Informative)
Majority? No. The US federal government employs approximately 1.9 million people.
Re:Environmentalism (Score:3, Informative)
The main reason production of many rare earths exists mainly in China and moved out of North America and Europe is the extremely polluting and toxic process of extraction.
Theirs isn't really that much worse then what ours was back when we were extracting rare earths.
US products protected by plenty of tariffs already (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.businessinsider.com/americas-biggest-tariffs-2010-9 [businessinsider.com]
You're really shooting yourself in the foot if you think tariffs are the answer. Google for "Economics in One Lesson" and read it.
Re:Easy solution (Score:1, Informative)
No it's not. It's standard business practice.
No one forced any other nation into a sole supplier relationship with China.
Re:Way to prove their point! (Score:4, Informative)
Do you subsidize your local business, or do you dump? What is happening in China is that they are doing BOTH. Keep in mind that China belongs to IMF and WTO. They have promised to do allow their money to float, to not subsidize general trade (though apparently key tech can be), and to not dump on the open market. China breaks all of those rules. Does Sweden? Nope.
US is a member of IMF and WTO. Yet, just look at the agriculture sector.
1. Huge tariffs on cane sugar
2. Huge subsidies on corn
3. Dumping agriculture surplus to 3rd world, killing their local production
4. Subsidies on wheat, cotton and tons of other stuff
Of course, this is not specific just to US. Most European countries do that too w.r.t. agricultural subsidies (see, France, Holland, Germany, UK, etc..). Hell, basically HALF of all the money from the EU (the European budget), is spent on agriculture subsidies!
So yes, US, please stop accusing China of stuff while you do the same thing. Currency manipulator next? Sure, China does it! So does the US and everyone else!!
The *real* problem for the US is China is not their puppet.
My only hope is that US and China don't fuck up the trade situation more than it already is. You know, step back from big red trade-war button and be the bigger man. But then for some reason I do not expect China or US to do that - both have way too much nationalistic pride, for their own economic demise.
Re:Easy solution (Score:3, Informative)
"Most favored nation" makes it sound like we're awarding them BFF status or something. Go look it up:
"In international trade, MFN status (or treatment) is awarded by one nation to another. It means that the receiving nation will be granted all trade advantages -- such as low tariffs -- that any other nation also receives. In effect, a nation with MFN status will not be discriminated against and will not be treated worse than any other nation with MFN status."
Re:Not again... (Score:5, Informative)
China has had phenomenal success by limiting free trade.
Re:Lo and behold (Score:3, Informative)
Maybe, but it won't happen in the foreseeable future. We'll be mining it from the ocean before we'll be mining Afghanistan [discovery.com].
Re:Way to prove their point! (Score:5, Informative)
Acutally according to the article [livescience.com] he might be on to something: "U.S. rare earth companies have begun looking to reopen old mines and search for new deposits, but industry experts say that relaunching an independent U.S. supply chain could take 15 years."
I know it says 15 years, but I have a feeling that if China really decided to withhold rare earth minerals for an extended time we'd find a supply a bit faster.
The only reason we use China's rare earth minerals is because they mine it and ship it to the US cheaper than we can mine it ourselves: [technewsdaily.com] "many U.S. companies have not jumped into the market because China's state-owned mines keep rare earth prices artificially low."
But we have plenty to mine: [technewsdaily.com] "the U.S. holds rare earth ore reserves of up to 13 million metric tons. By contrast, the entire world produced just 124,000 metric tons in 2009". That means we have roughly 104 years worth of rare earth ore reserves, I think we'll be just fine.
China's kind of like the neighbor kid that knocks on my door and offers to mow the lawn for $20. It's not that I can't mow myself, but when it's so cheap to pay someone else why do it myself? If he ever didn't show up for a couple weeks I'd just do it myself, but as long as he's offering I'll keep paying him.
I have no idea what history you're reading... (Score:3, Informative)
I have no idea what history you're reading...
On July 24, 1941, Japan occupied French Indo-China (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos).
On July 26, 1941, F.D.R. froze all Japanese assets in the U.S. and embargoed all trade with Japan, including sales of oil and scrap metal.
On November 20, 1941, Japan gave a list of demands to Washington, including thawing the frozen assets, resuming full trade relations, and U.S. aid in obtaining supplies from the Dutch East Indies. U.S. Secretary of state Hull made a counter-proposal involving Japan withdrawing their occupation and signing a non-agression pact. Japan asked for two weeks to consider the proposal.
On November 26, 1941, Japan dispatched the carrier fleet which would stage the attack on Perl Harbor.
World War II on the Pacific Theatre was definitely about resources.
-- Terry
Re:Way to prove their point! (Score:5, Informative)
Australia USA Free Trade Agreement already exists (Score:1, Informative)
Block all Chinese imports, eject the Chinese ambassador and announce a free trade agreement with Taiwan, Japan, Singapore and Australia.
Perhaps you should check your post before submitting because Australia already has a FTA with the US. And by recent reports we here in Australia seem to have got the raw end of the deal (surprise surprise) see http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/mind-the-gap-benefits-from-free-trade-havent-quite-gone-the-distance-20100302-pg6p.html
Re:Way to prove their point! (Score:1, Informative)
Wow, talk about a clueless reply praised by some.
What you should complain about is the ongoing monetary policy which is solely for the purpose of monetary base inflation and currency debasement, as well as the statist policies enacted which merely serve as barriers for entry and reduce competition. I'm not sure what you are lambasting about the unions, but needless to say that current times have shown the perverse nature that they have taken, from the recent GM bankruptcy, to the outlandish compensation and retirement benefits enjoyed in the public sector.
Oh, also throw in there the minimum wage in that lot, which, again, serves as a barrier for entry as well as reducing the appeal for production in the USA.
You won't get any jobs to stay here without sound monetary and fiscal policy, as well as a reduction in gov mandates and other barriers for entry. There is no magic that Congress can make in order to "create jobs" as they like to say; the only thing that they will be doing is foster a trade war, and then you'll see how much better we'll be.
Re:Way to prove their point! (Score:3, Informative)
When opinions overshadow facts... (Score:5, Informative)
China doesn't have to buy US debt.
Actually they do have to buy US debt. China manages their currency and the only way to maintain their currency at a weak exchange rate to the dollar is to buy US Treasuries. China cannot stop buying dollars in the short term even if they want to.
Especially if commodities start trading in something other than US dollars.
Won't happen any time soon. The dollar is the world's de-facto reserve currency. Many commodities (including oil) trade in US dollars. This is not likely to change.
After all, why the hell would you support the dollar today? The interest rate sucks,
Which interest rate, out of curiosity, are you referring to? Currencies don't have interest rates. Treasury bills do, but yields on government debt are low everywhere except on governments in risk of default (like Greece). Furthermore, the coupon on US treasuries is almost always lower than for most other debt because it is considered safer than any other debt. US treasuries are backed by the ability of the US government (which has never defaulted) to raise taxes on the biggest single economy in the world. Nothing is perfectly safe but that's about as good as it gets.
the US government is spending more than ever before, and the US economy (which has been in the tank for a while now) continues to struggle.
It's a global recession. Every major economy is struggling, not just the US.
Plus add this to the fact that US banks have no idea who they have loaned money to -
I have no idea where you got this idea or what you are referring to. I'm pretty sure the US banks have a very good idea who they have loaned to. They have other problems but knowing who their debtors are is not one of them.
no, there are far wiser places to put your money today than US treasury notes. In fact, almost anywhere BUT US T-bills will get you a better return.
No one invests in T-bills to get a big return. The return on Tbills has been very low for most of the last century when compared with alternatives. Hell, the calculations for cost of investments is usually found starting with the so called risk-free rate (normally US Treasuries which are considered the world around to be the closest thing to a risk free investment) plus some additional interest to compensate for additional risk. The reason people buy them is because they are safe or because (like China) they are trying to manage their exchange rates. If you are looking for a big return, government debt is rarely the best option out there.
Re:Not again... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Way to prove their point! (Score:3, Informative)
I'm all for reasonable limitations that keep the air and water clean, but there is a middle ground that the extremes in your statement don't cover. It isn't like a company must either be a complete polluter or not exist.
We have technologies for cleaning pollution. It's hard to justify using them when your government and indeed entire civilization is willing to "externalize" that pollution... which comes back to us, of course.
Ask anyone who is actually in manufacturing (like my employer), the biggest problem with building in the USA is corporate taxes,
The biggest companies in this country pay NO taxes. I don't think that's the biggest problem.
The other issue is consistency in the regulation and enforcement. The regulations in the US are not nearly as bad as the red tape you have cut through to just LEARN what the actual regulations are. It is easy to think you are in compliance here even if you are not. I see EPA violations from companies all the time, but the EPA is very, very spotty in how they enforce.
I think it's clear that some money is changing hands. Also the EPA has no teeth.