Beijing and Washington lift export restrictions on key products
Background: The resumption in exports of key products signals Beijing and Washington's desire to maintain a fragile truce in a tit-for-tat trade war that in April resulted in tariffs in excess of 100 percent from both sides. The Trump administration reduced those tariffs to 55 percent last month while China trimmed its levies on U.S. imports to 10 percent as the two sides negotiate a wider trade agreement.
But the willingness of the two sides to weaponize nontariff barriers — including widening limits on shipments of certain chemicals and software to China and Beijing's embargo on rare earth exports — poses an ongoing threat to industries in both countries.
Big picture: The move to restore bilateral trade of key tech and minerals is good news for industry and markets. But the durability of those exports is vulnerable to any future flare-up in U.S.-China tensions.
Beijing's dominance of the rare earths supply chain is of particular concern to the U.S. defense industry, which requires China-supplied minerals to produce everything from munitions and precision weaponry to military night vision equipment.
What's next: An agreement on limitations of export restrictions is likely a key agenda item in ongoing efforts to broker a wider U.S.-China trade agreement. But it's uncertain whether Beijing will surrender its advantage in rare earths supply, given that the U.S. is years away from developing reliable domestic sources of those critical minerals.
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