China Begins Stockpiling Rare Earths, Draws WTO Attention 227
eldavojohn writes "A report by China Securities Journal claims that China is now stockpiling rare earths although it has not indicated when this stockpiling started. Many WTO members have complained about China's tightening restrictions on exports of rare earths while China maintains that such restrictions are an attempt to clean up its environmental problems. A WTO special conference scheduled for July 10th will hopefully decide if China's restrictions are unfair trade practices or if the US, the EU and Japan are merely upset that they can't export their pollution and receive rare earths at low prices. Last year, China granted its mining companies the right to export 30,200 tons but in actuality only 18,600 tons were shipped out of country."
Perhaps appeasement for business & China was b (Score:5, Interesting)
Even if it harms the businesses and the fellow travelers that aid and abet such a hostile regime, it is time that the world plays hardball on China.
Things like this are why Faustian deals of getting a pliant slave-labor workforce are always a bad idea. Trade is no excuse for appeasement.
Re:Why shouldn't they? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Hmmmm (Score:4, Interesting)
The point being is that OPEC sets a ceiling on how much oil it pumps out each month. If you are interested in $2 / gallon gasoline, you want OPEC to produce flat out and, in fact, punch wells in every square foot of space you own.
If you're OPEC and trying to manage a non renewable resource, you don't want to do that. While OPEC isn't the only source of oil (and neither is China the only source of Rare Earths), they produce enough to partially control prices.
Same with China.
Buy cheap, sell dear.
Re:Smart but not nice (Score:5, Interesting)
... setting up a DeBeers of rare earth metals.
Diamonds are valuable only because they are rare. If the DeBeers cartel fell apart, the value of diamonds could quickly collapse, because demand would likely go down with falling prices (the opposite of normal supply/demand). But rare earths are different, because they are actually useful. If they became more plentiful and the price started to decline, many alternative uses would open up, which would push demand back up, and provide price support. Rare earths are used in things like super-magnets, catalysts, specialty alloys, etc. These could be used much more widely if they were cheaper. There is very little risk of a price collapse.
Re:Smart but not nice (Score:4, Interesting)
Better yet, give her gold or silver.
They can be bought and sold via the oz price and she could get a fair price for them. Resale value of jewelry is horrible.