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Metals

China Could Quickly Strangle American Tech With Metals Cutoff

March 10, 2025 Kurt Cobb, Resilience. , , , , , , ,
There’s no telling exactly where the Trump administration’s trade war is going as the president authorizes tariffs and then quickly suspends them, only to authorize them again and suspend them again or provide waivers for certain industries. While tariffs on narrowly defined categories of goods to guard against unfair competition may be workable, the administration’s shotgun approach to tariffs risks a cutoff of strategic minerals that could strangle America’s tech industry. As I’ve written before, the United States is dangerously dependent on other countries for a wide-ranging list of metals and, in some cases, completely dependent.

US Sectors Hit By New Chinese Tariffs And Restrictions

February 16, 2025 Mauro Ramos, People's Dispatch. , , , , ,
Earlier this week, China’s tariffs on some US products came into effect, in response to the 10% increase in tariffs that the Trump administration imposed on all Chinese products, starting on February 1st. China created a 15% tariff on coal and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and a 10% tariff on crude oil, agricultural machinery, cars with large engines and pickup trucks. On February 4, Xi Jinping’s government filed a lawsuit against the US government’s tariff imposition with the World Trade Organization’s dispute settlement mechanism. China has also implemented export controls on five metals: tungsten, tellurium, bismuth, molybdenum, and indium.