BRUSSELS – For more than two years, the world’s industrialized countries have been locking horns with China over the supply of rare earth elements, a critical component of many high-tech products. Now, these tensions may be reaching a breaking point, after the United States, the European Union, and Japan recently filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization against China’s export restrictions on a number of critical minerals, including rare earths. But a WTO case against, should it succeed, might be at best a Pyrrhic victory, and, at worst, a strategic blunder.
BRUSSELS – For more than two years, the world’s industrialized countries have been locking horns with China over the supply of rare earth elements, a critical component of many high-tech products. Now, these tensions may be reaching a breaking point, after the United States, the European Union, and Japan recently filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization against China’s export restrictions on a number of critical minerals, including rare earths. But a WTO case against, should it succeed, might be at best a Pyrrhic victory, and, at worst, a strategic blunder.