In response to United States (US) tariffs, and citing national security interests as a reason, China introduced two waves of export controls for rare-earth elements (REEs) in April and October 2025 respectively. The second wave has been suspended until November 2026. The EU has been negatively affected by the controls on REEs, which are indispensable for its digital, green and defence industries. While the partial suspension has been widely welcomed, China's move highlighted major vulnerabilities of the EU supply chains that remain hard to mitigate. Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP Read more