The Dow Jones (DJIA) is mounting a comeback on Monday as the U.S. and China continue to make progress toward a comprehensive trade deal.
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“We’re focused on making sure that magnets from China to the United States and the adjacent supply chain can flow as freely as it did before the control,” said U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, adding that a rare earth agreement was “about halfway there.”
China’s Ultimate Bargaining Chip
Rare-earth elements are a group of 17 metals that are crucial in the production of everyday electronic devices, like cell phones, electric vehicles, and computers. China leverages its dominance in rare earths as a key bargaining chip in trade negotiations. The country mines around 70% of the world’s rare earths and processes around 90% of them.
“China has had the monopoly in this market for a really long time, and that monopoly has only increased,” said Benchmark Mineral Intelligence rare earths research manager Neha Mukherjee.
The Dow Jones is up by 0.95% at the time of writing.
