【华尔街日报0312】奥巴马就矿物贸易问题逼迫中国

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Obama To Push China onMineralshttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304450004577278132260314666.html

By SUDEEP REDDY                And JARED A. FAVOLE            The Obama administration Tuesday intends to escalate its trade offensive against China, a move heavy with political overtones, by pressing the World Trade Organization to force the export giant to ease its stranglehold on rare-earth minerals critical to high-tech manufacturing.
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                                                                                                Reuters               

A worker waters the site of a rare-earth metals mine at Nancheng county, Jiangxi province Dec. 30, 2010.

            


The announcement, which will be made by President Barack Obama, marks a new front in the administration's election-year effort to turn up the heat on China, amid competition from the president's potential GOP rivals on the matter. It could also pressure China to respond to the WTO on an issue that is of high importance to a range of manufacturers.
The U.S., joined by the European Union and Japan, plans to ask the WTO, the international arbiter of trade practices, to open talks with China over its restrictions on exporting the rare-earth minerals, administration officials said.
China dominates both the mining of rare-earth materials and the ability to process mined oxides into the metals that serve as key components of everything from smartphones to hybrid vehicles to military equipment.
China produces more than 95% of the world's rare-earth minerals.
The latest U.S. effort was widely anticipated by people in the industry following years of unsuccessful efforts to press China directly on the issue. The U.S. will ask the WTO to push China to stop its controls on the production of rare-earth minerals. Barring a surprise breakthrough in negotiations, the issue is likely to become a full-fledged case at the WTO against China.
Chinese officials couldn't immediately be reached for comment. In the past, Beijing has cited environmental reasons for putting tighter controls on rare-earth exports.
Getting tough on China is one way Mr. Obama can begin to buttress relations with labor unions and blue-collar workers who objected to his championing of a series of bilateral trade deals last year. It is a vital constituency for the president, and one that has been somewhat tepid in its support.
Mr. Obama in January announced a new trade task force designed to press China on its trade and business practices, including growing concerns among U.S. businesses about intellectual property theft and U.S. restrictions in major Chinese markets.
When the president hosted Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, China's presumed next leader, at the White House last month, he said the U.S. welcomes China's economic growth but warned Mr. Xi that China needs to adhere to international economic and business standards.
The leading Republican presidential contender, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, is ramping up his own rhetoric on the topic. He has pledged throughout his campaign to take a tougher position than the Obama administration on U.S. corporate interests, from currency to trade.
The U.S. has achieved a number of successes in pressing China, a WTO member, through the international trade body. But the cases can take years to resolve, including appeals. The U.S. and China have sparred for several years on trade policies for products ranging from tires to chicken.
China's hold on the rare-earth minerals market has raised concerns that the U.S. is too dependent on the country for materials that are necessary for complex weapons systems. The Pentagon last fall, in a report to Congress, warned lawmakers about the U.S. military's dependence on the raw materials and recommended alternatives to Chinese supplies.
In 2009, the U.S. and European Union launched a case against China at the WTO related to other industrial raw materials, such as magnesium and zinc, maintaining that China limited exports in order to boost prices and help domestic producers.
The WTO ruled against China in that case in January, leading lawmakers and trade officials around the world to press for a similar action related to the 17 rare-earth metals.
Beijing's previously rigid defense of its rare-earth export limits appeared shaken by that decision, as a Chinese policy maker suggested a fresh readiness to talk with major trading partners at the WTO. "Regarding WTO members' possible similar actions over China's rare-earth policies, we're ready to respond at any time in line with WTO rules and procedures," said Li Chenggang, head of the Ministry of Commerce's legal and treaty department, to Xinhua news agency in an interview published Feb. 1.
While WTO rules technically permit export quotas on natural resources for environmental protection, trade lawyers say China's export caps on rare-earth minerals violate the spirit of those rules. They note while Beijing has been cutting access to the resources by other countries through the quotas, it has been slow to implement rigid production limits at home that might truly protect the natural resources.
At the same time, China's hold on its own industry has occasionally come under question. In a recent research note for GK Dragonomics, Scott Kennedy, director of the Research Center for Chinese Politics and Business at Indiana University, said that behind China's apparent control is a "messier reality."
Mr. Kennedy said China's rare-earth production and trade remains highly fragmented because individual companies and the local governments that support them are able to thwart Beijing's industrial designs. As a result, Mr. Kennedy said, China will fail to achieve its objectives of "consolidating the industry, gaining control of global prices, and obtaining downstream technologies from foreign competitors."
Many of the key rare earths closely watched from the industry have declined in price in recent months, though they remain high by historical standards. The rare-earths price surge that began three years ago has fueled efforts by companies to reduce their use in manufacturing and to find additional sources.
Pricing in the industry can be opaque because rare earths are mined in such small quantities and they aren't traded over public markets.
One such producer is Molycorp Inc. of the U.S., which last week struck a deal to acquire a metals processor that it said would help it ramp up production at a U.S. mine that had once been a top producer of rare earths. But underscoring China's dominance of the industry, the deal includes sending some material to facilities in China for processing.



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