HORSENS, Denmark — The European Union will not shy away from a strong response to China’s latest export restrictions on rare earths in coordination with its G7 partners, the EU trade chief said Tuesday.
“This is seen as a critical concern,” Maroš Šefčovič said ahead of a meeting of EU trade ministers in Denmark, calling China’s move a “dramatic” expansion of raw materials targeted by the restrictions, which was “aggravating” an already serious situation.
Šefčovič said he had discussed the situation with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and the two agreed “that it would be advisable after this first discussion also to have a G7 video call pretty soon.” The G7 is made up of the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, the United Kingdom and Japan.
China last year imposed similar controls on materials like graphite, germanium and gallium, all of which are also used in tech, defense and green industries. Šefčovič complained that for those materials “only half of the applications” were properly processed by Beijing.
