China hoarding minerals; U.S. can't go green?

[fb101]

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/obama- ... =bigcharts

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The U.S. will pursue a rare-earth mineral trade case against China at the World Trade Organization because China's export limits have unfairly blocked U.S. domestic manufacturers from accessing the material, which are important components in clean-energy products, President Barack Obama said Tuesday. "Being able to manufacture advanced batteries and hybrid cars in America is too important for us to stand by and do nothing," Obama said. "We can't let that energy industry take root in some other country because they were allowed to break the rules," Obama said.

Something here we need to get used to......

[justoneguy]

It doesn't say which rare earth minerals that they are talking about.
A commenter suggested it was lithium, for batteries.
I read last year china was looking to import neodymium.
They were a huge exporter of it in previous years
they make rare earth magnets out of it.
The magnets go in wind generators.
the US is pissed because we want it to use it in our Ipod earbuds

[fb101]

Here's a BBC followup;
Apparently the EU and Japan are also in on this.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17348648

[franklin]

Chris Martenson went into some detail in a talk he gave about this situation. I think it was his talk in Madrid late last year when he took questions from the audience.

[Copper Catcher]

This article goes into a little more detail:
http://www.eubusiness.com/topics/trade/rare-earths

There is no advantage to China to letting go of more of these rare earth elements than it needs too. The U.S. government can cry all it wants, but if the shoe were on the other foot the U.S. would do the same to China.

[rsk1963]

There is no advantage to China to letting go of more of these rare earth elements than it needs too. The U.S. government can cry all it wants, but if the shoe were on the other foot the U.S. would do the same to China.

Agreed.

[frugalcanuck]

There is no advantage to China to letting go of more of these rare earth elements than it needs too. The U.S. government can cry all it wants, but if the shoe were on the other foot the U.S. would do the same to China.

Agreed.

I disagree. The US would put it on the open market or deny "rare earth metals" exist. The US would not go public saying they will not export something unless they can argue it can be used for terrorism.

[frugalcanuck]

There are lots of "rare earth mineral" deposits in the US. If they want them so bad, they can be mined.