Officials from the United States, the European Union and Japan are pledging to work closer together on ways to ensure secure supplies of strategically vital rare earths and other critical materials.
U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu told a conference Wednesday in Tokyo that improving processing and recycling of the materials, used in many high-tech products, is vital in the medium term. He said that in the near term, they must be “used as sparingly you can.”
China holds about a third of the world’s rare earth reserves but supplies about 90 percent of what is consumed. In the past two years it has imposed limits on its exports, citing a need to impose order on an unruly domestic market and to reduce environmental damage.
That has raised protests from countries relying on supplies from China for many industries, including automaking and electronics.
The U.S., Japan and EU recently filed complaints with the World Trade Organization over Chinese limits on exports of rare earths.
“It is important the consuming countries and supplying countries … develop a global supply chain so that we are not dependent on one source,” said Japan’s trade minister, Yukio Edano.
Looking to the long term, attention has now shifted toward supply-chain security, said Hans Dietmar Schweistgut, the EU ambassador to Japan.
Source: Huffington Post
By Elaine Kurtenbach