President Donald Trump and Xi Jinping are scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting in South Korea in three weeks to resolve the trade dispute between the United States and China. But today Trump threatened to raise tariffs on China and canceled a meeting with Xi.
The threat came after China tightened its export restrictions on rare earth elements to the United States, which was seen as pressure from Beijing before talks could take place. In an order issued on Thursday, China added five more rare earth elements to its export ban list. With this, 12 of the 17 rare earth elements require a license before they can be exported.
Machines for mining, processing and purifying rare earth elements are also subject to similar restrictions. China controls 90% of the production of rare earth elements, which are desperately needed by the technology sector to produce electronic devices, screens, batteries and even weapons.