China has tightened its control on rare earths for more than ten days. The EU has thought of many ways, but still cannot solve the rare earths issue. It still calls China and invites China to negotiate, hoping that China can provide rare earths.
According to Reuters, on October 21 local time, EU Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security, Shevchenko, said he had called the Chinese side to invite the Chinese side to Brussels to discuss an “urgent solution” to rare-earth export control.
Shevchenko stressed at a news conference that the EU does not want to escalate the situation.After the EU tightened rare earth exports to China, it announced measures to be taken. Earlier in a speech with the Danish foreign minister of the rotating presidency of the EU, Shevchenko said that he would strengthen communication cooperation with the United States, and was also prepared to pull all countries within the G7 to compete with China's export controls.
At the time, the Western world seemed to pull all the nations that could pull up and build a rare earth supply chain independent of China.Now the United States seeks Australia to solve rare earth and signs a $8.5 billion cooperation development agreement, Trump advocated that the United States will have endless rare earth as long as a year.
It seems that the United States does not take its European allies to heart. Trump only wants to solve the rare earth supply problem in the United States quickly. As for what Europe does, Trump doesn't careMeeting with Europe and the G7 countries just to find a solution to America’s supply of rare earth, the United States left its allies as soon as it found an alternative.
Europe does not have large reserves of rare earths, and its technology is not at the forefront of the world. Reserves of key minerals are still in Ukraine, and Ukraine is now at war. It is almost impossible for Europe to find minerals and technology on its own in a short period of time. Therefore, after thinking about it, it is the most appropriate to come to China.
Shevchenko said in his speech that the EU has applied for exports, but currently has received few rare earth and export approvals. European automobile and machinery industries are still waiting to continue production using rare earth. Shevchenko also mentioned that China and the Netherlands have also communicated to resolve the dispute between China and the Netherlands.
Although there have been many actions in Europe before, joining other countries to ensure the supply of rare earth, but China's production of rare earth accounts for more than 80% of the world, the European automotive industry is a very time and planning industry, if the relevant raw materials cannot be in place, the subsequent production plan will naturally be postponed, then this will affect the normal profitability of the automobile enterprises.
European car companies have experienced twists and turns this year. The United States has imposed tariffs on European cars. Europe itself has also experienced the contraction of car company production caused by the economic recession. In addition, American cars and new energy electric vehicles have had an impact on traditional European car companies. Established industrial countries like Germany attach great importance to car companies, which are their important economic pillars.
If car companies fail to produce normally, not only will the economy be affected, but employment and social welfare in Europe will be limited.
In addition to rare earths, Europe is now unable to obtain key parts needed in automobile production due to the outage of supply at Anser Semiconductor in the Netherlands. This will also affect the normal production of European car companies.
So Shevchovich stressed that Europe does not want to upgrade the situation, stressing that Europe wants to negotiate with China under the existing trade framework.
However, the above-mentioned cooperation between Europe and other countries has not stopped. The EU is actually pursuing a two-track policy. The protection of rare earths is a long-term issue. Europe wants to produce them independently in the future and ensure that key minerals do not rely on China. Therefore, we will maintain communication and cooperation with other countries.
However, independent production cannot be achieved in the short term, and European companies are in urgent need of rare earth raw materials, so naturally they can only negotiate with China. For China, this is actually a good opportunity for negotiation. With Europe's demand for rare earths, both sides can spread their chips. If things go well, it may push the two sides to reach a trade agreement, especially the EU's restrictions on China's electric vehicles.