WH Official: Chinese Rare Earth Controls Could Disrupt Economy
White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told an Axios interviewer that the administration was taken aback by China's announcement of extraterritorial export controls on products made with rare earths processed in China.
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"To be honest, we were pretty surprised when, all of a sudden, out of the blue, they really ramped up pressure with this rare earth thing," Hassett said Oct. 15. He said he expects there will "be a big disruption to the economy if they really went ahead" on Dec. 1, as the Chinese government said it intends.
Data shows that with current levels of tariffs, Chinese exports to the U.S. have declined just over 25%, but that the country's exports globally continue to grow.
"China's economy ... has been able to withstand the pressure from our trade policy by selling a lot of stuff to Europe," he said. However, he said "there's a chance" Europe will wall off its economy from Chinese exports, as the U.S. has done.