China eases controls on rare earths after WTO complaint

China has scrapped its export quotas for rare earths, minerals used in mobile phones and other high-tech products, after losing a World Trade Organization case brought by Washington and other trading partners over controls that alarmed global technology producers.
The change was included in the Ministry of Commerce's trade guidelines for 2015 but there was no separate announcement. Under the new guidelines, rare earths will require an export license but the amount that can be sold abroad will no longer be covered by a quota.
China's curbs, imposed in 2009, prompted concern about supplies for global technology producers. They led to efforts to reopen or develop new mines in the United States and elsewhere, and by Japan and some other countries to recycle rare earths.

China has about 30 per cent of global deposits of rare earths but accounts for more than 90 per cent of production. It imposed export limits while it tried to build up domestic manufacturers to capture more of the profits that go to Western and Japanese producers of mobile phone batteries and other products.
Beijing cited the need to conserve a dwindling resource and limit environmental damage from mining but imposed no restrictions on production and use of rare earths by companies within China.
Chinese officials have expressed hope foreign manufacturers that use rare earths will shift production to China and give technology to local partners.