Although China appears to be expediting the approval process of rare earth shipments, Beijing will likely continue to wield restrictions on such exports in the face of growing U.S. technology and trade restrictions, sustaining a high risk of future supply chain disruptions, particularly for automakers. U.S.-China trade talks in London focusing on export controls began on June 9 amid a growing supply chain crisis for U.S. and other Western automakers following China's April 4 introduction of a new export licensing regime covering seven rare earth elements. China introduced those measures in response to sweeping new U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods that the United States announced on April 2. Since then, China has approved far fewer exports of these rare earth magnets, which have aerospace and defense applications due to their high heat tolerance, but are also widely used in vehicles. This has led to global shortages due to China's market...
