The United States intends to impose tariffs on rare earth magnets in China

SHANGHAI, Jun 17 (SMM) – US Treasury Department was considering launching an investigation on imported neodymium magnets widely used in electromechanical products, motors and other industrial products on the grounds of "national security."  Imports of neodymium magnets mainly come from China.

Taking the data of April this year as an example, the top five exporters of China's rare earth permanent magnets include Germany, the United States, South Korea, Vietnam, and Italy whose imports stood at 584.427 mt, 500.42 mt and 476.576 mt, 340.63 mt and 234.976 mt.

America imported 4,923.485 mt of rare earth permanent magnets from China in 2020, and 1,862.368 in January-April, up 35.27% on the year.

Rare earth permanent magnet materials are also essential raw materials for wind power generation. The US Department of Energy has announced the construction of 30 GW of offshore wind turbines by 2030 and 110 GW of offshore wind turbines by 2050. But the rare earth industry in US is not as strong as China. According to the United States Geological Survey, about 80% of the rare earth materials are from China.

Some companies said that the United States “does not take it seriously for the time being” amid high cost-effectiveness of China's rare earth permanent magnet products. And the same type of products are three times more expensive in Japan.

Huo Jianguo, vice chairman of the China World Trade Organization Research Association, said in an interview that the current US government has laid a foundation in the strategy of uniting allies to fight against China and has begun to try to directly "contact" with China, which follows the old path of Donald Trump administration. Huo believed that the Trump administration put high pressure on China and imposed tariffs on a large scale to narrow the trade deficit with China, or changed the industrial division of labour with China, but this attempt ended in failure. Therefore, the Biden administration is unlikely to achieve the desired results by following Trump's old ways.