Rare earth: meaning in Trump's trade war explained
Rare earth: meaning in Trump's trade war explained
The trade war between the USA and China has a decisive point of controversy: rare earths. Last month, President Donald Trump said that the United States "very much" needed "very urgent" and thus renewed his threat of annexing the Danish territory. Greenland is a resource -rich island with a supply of critical minerals hidden in the ice, which also includes the rare earths. In addition, Trump signed a “rare earth agreement” with Ukraine.
What are rare earths and are they really "rare"?
rare earths are 17 metallic elements in the periodic system, including Scandium, Yttrium and the Lanthanoids. The term "rare earth" is misleading because these materials occur everywhere in the earth's crust. They are available in larger quantities than gold, but difficult and expensive to extract and process it. In addition, they are environmentally harmful .
What are rare earths used for?
rare earths are omnipresent in the technologies that we rely on everyday life-from smartphones to wind turbines to LED lights and flat screen TVs. They are also crucial for batteries in electric vehicles as well as for MRI scanners and cancer treatments.
In addition, rare earths play an important role in the US military. They are used in F-35 jets, submarines, lasers, satellites, Tomahawk rockets and other military applications, as a research note from 2025 of the CSIS shows.
where do rare earths come from?
According to the international energy agency, 61 % of the rare earths from China, and the country are controlled 92 % of global production in the processing phase.
There are two types of rare earths that are categorized according to their atomic weight: heavy and light. Heavy rare earths are less common, and the United States does not have the capacities to carry out the difficult separation after the extraction.
"Until the beginning of the year we sent all the rare rare earths that we dismantled in California to China for separation," Gracelin Baskaran, director of the Critical Mineral Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told CNN. However, the trump government's announcement in April to raise high tariffs on China has had this process derailed. "China has shown that it is ready to use America's dependence on China when separating the rare earths," she added.
In California there is currently only a functioning rare earth mine, according to Baskaran.
Why are rare earths important in the trade war?
On Friday, Trump explained to Trump on Trump that Month was agreed. Beijing has retained its export controls on seven rare earths and the associated products, in response to Trump's "mutual tariffs" announced to Chinese goods in April. After agreement on the ceasefire in Geneva, US authorities had expected China to loosen the export restrictions for these raw materials.
The export controls could have significant effects, since the USA depends heavily on rare earths. Between 2020 and 2023, 70 % of US imports of rare earths came from the country, such as a report of the US geological Survey shows.
In addition to China, rare earths are also part of the United States' foreign policy goals in relation to Ukraine, Greenland and Saudi Arabia. "Ukraine has a very young mining industry, and even if the topic was part of the conversations, we actually have no cards about what is economically viable," said Baskaran.For further insights into the rare earths and the geopolitical effects, comprehensive reports are available.