China Dials Up US Trade Tension With Tit-for-Tat Metals Ban
China ratcheted up trade tensions with the US with a ban on several materials with high-tech and military applications, in a tit-for-tat move after President Joe Biden’s government escalated technology curbs on Beijing.
Gallium, germanium, antimony and superhard materials are no longer allowed to be shipped to America, the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement Tuesday. Beijing will also place tighter controls on sales of graphite, it added.
The move came after the White House on Monday slapped fresh curbs on the sale of high-bandwidth memory chips made by US and foreign companies to China. The Biden administration’s goal, building on years of evolving trade restrictions, is to slow China’s development of advanced semiconductors and artificial intelligence systems that may help its military.
President Xi Jinping’s government initially placed gallium and germanium under stricter government oversight last year, in a move that sent prices spiking and upended trade flows. There were zero reported exports of the metals to the US this year, which suggests that American industries were instead drawing on inventories or procuring the metal from other sources.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-12-03/china-bans-germanium-gallium-exports-to-us-in-tit-for-tat-move?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTczMzIzMzg4OCwiZXhwIjoxNzMzODM4Njg4LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJTTldTNUVEV0xVNjgwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJDNjgyQTUwQzJCRDM0MTFCQTgwQjEwQjZEQjczQzM1MSJ9.-W8b6nS-Xu40oHhVjTZfHApZ9YSzqPzKAZq9dTz38tQ