Brussels, 16/06/2011 (Agence Europe) - The WTO is expected next month to rule in favour of the United States, Mexico and the EU in their complaint against restrictions imposed by China to the export of critical raw materials. This decision, says EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht, will help the EU overcome the Chinese restrictions, in particular on rare earth metals.
According to the confidential verdict sent to the parties in April, the WTO is likely to come down on the side of the complainants when it publishes its judgment in July, and rule that China's unilateral measures - imposition of quotas, export duty and minimum pricing -restrict the export of nine raw materials, including zinc and coke. In 2009, the United States, Mexico and the EU jointly lodged a complaint with the WTO against the Chinese restrictions on the export of critical raw materials, such as bauxite, coke, fluorite, magnesium, manganese, metallurgical grade silicon, silicon carbide, yellow phosphorus and zinc - materials essential to numerous intermediate products in the steel, aluminium and chemical industries - by means of administrative measures which infringe WTO rules. This case is such that about a dozen countries have declared themselves interested parties.
While this complaint does not refer to export restrictions on 17 minerals known as rare earth metals, which are essential in the manufacture of high-tech goods, such as flat screens, mobile phones, lasers and hybrid vehicles (China holds 35% of accessible reserves and 97% of the world market), the ruling could, according to De Gucht, help the EU in its opposition to the Chinese export restrictions, in particular, on rare earths. “I believe this will considerably strengthen the position of the EU. The panel decision which will be made public next month gives us interesting guidelines on how to address this issue at the WTO in the future, also on rare earth materials”, he said at a conference on raw materials in Brussels on 14 June. China took the world economy by surprise when it extended the embargo on the export of rare earth metals it had imposed on Japan following a diplomatic incident between the two countries to the industrialised nations. In its defence, China cited domestic, economic - the need to conserve its resources for its own development - and environmental reasons. (E.H./transl.rt)