Reciprocal restriction

It has been around two weeks since China reportedly placed export restriction on some rare earth minerals, in response to US President Donald Trump’s tariffs. This trade war is hurting all countries.

Rare earth minerals are used to make many of the key components in electric cars, rockets, computer chips and even vacuum cleaners, so a supply choke will hurt these industries. China dominates the rare earth supply chain and is proving itself more than capable of responding to any punitive economic measures from the US.

Shafi Ahmed Khowaja

Hyderabad