{"text":[[{"start":9.85,"text":"Export restrictions on critical raw materials have increased fivefold since 2009 despite continuing efforts by advanced economies to diversify their supply chains, OECD research has shown."}],[{"start":22.2,"text":"Analysis of export restrictions on important ingredients for defence, technology and green energy supply chains also found that an increasingly broad range of countries were now imposing controls. "}],[{"start":34.65,"text":"The research found that advanced economies had made scant progress in addressing critical mineral chokepoints after being alerted to the risk 15 years ago when China imposed a de facto embargo on rare earth exports to Japan following a diplomatic row over spying allegations."}],[{"start":52.349999999999994,"text":"“China temporarily stopped access to rare earths in 2011 and since then, not a lot has changed in terms of exposure to that risk,” said Marion Jansen, head of the OECD’s trade and agriculture directorate. “The use of export restrictions has increased for 15 years in a row. The curve is flattening but it’s still increasing.”"}],[{"start":72.35,"text":"The OECD analysis comes amid growing efforts by the organisation’s 38 members to expand supplies of critical materials. "}],[{"start":80.8,"text":"China produces about 70 per cent of the world’s rare earth elements and graphite and more than 90 per cent of certain critical elements for advanced manufacturing, such as neodymium-praseodymium, used in permanent magnets, and the metal germanium, used in fibre optics."}],[{"start":96.5,"text":"While some economies, such as the US and EU, have slightly reduced their exposure to Chinese dominance, the continuing risk was again highlighted last year when Beijing briefly choked off supplies of rare earths to US and European manufacturers in response to President Donald Trump raising tariffs to 145 per cent, forcing the US to the negotiating table."}],[{"start":119.1,"text":"The analysis, published at an OECD conference in Istanbul to unlock increased investment in critical mineral production, demonstrates how difficult it has proven to break China’s stranglehold on rare earths production."}],[{"start":131.5,"text":"Opening the conference, Turkish trade minister Ömer Bolat said there was an urgent need to create a “fair and predictable” environment for trade in critical commodities and warned against the “weaponisation” of chokepoints."}],[{"start":144.2,"text":"“Unpredictable restrictions, non-transparent subsidy competition and the weaponisation of supply dependencies create costs for the entire global economy,” he said."}],[{"start":null,"text":"
"}],[{"start":155.7,"text":"Since the 2010 face-off with Japan, the OECD found that the global share of critical minerals covered by restrictions such as export controls, quotas and licensing requirements had risen “markedly” between 2009 and 2024, from 12.4 to 16 per cent."}],[{"start":175.5,"text":"The OECD database identifies “measures known or suspected to restrain export activity”, including taxes, export controls and licensing regimes as they apply to a list of 65 strategic industrial commodities, including 57 minerals and metals."}],[{"start":193,"text":"The average figure concealed substantial variations across different products, with about 70 per cent of global exports of cobalt and manganese subject to at least one export restriction in 2022-24, alongside 45 per cent of rare earth elements."}],[{"start":210.2,"text":"Since 2009, some economies, such as the EU, US and Japan, have managed to marginally reduce exposure to controls, while more import-dependent countries, such as the UK, Canada and South Korea, have seen their risk levels increase significantly. "}],[{"start":226.04999999999998,"text":"The rise in restrictions has been driven more recently by a growing number of export controls on scrap metals and electronic waste as countries look to recycling to boost domestic supplies for critical materials. "}],[{"start":238.14999999999998,"text":"The restrictions have also diversified geographically. From 2009 to 2014, the top five countries imposing restrictions were India, China, Argentina, Vietnam and Burundi, accounting for more than half of all measures introduced. "}],[{"start":253.7,"text":"However, in 2024 the list of countries imposing restrictions had broadened to resource-rich economies in Africa and Asia, including Myanmar, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Angola, Rwanda and Kazakhstan."}],[{"start":267.25,"text":"Trade experts said the growth in export controls reflected a wider fracturing of the multilateral trade system, driven in part by a series of crises, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the war in Iran. "}],[{"start":282.5,"text":"A separate analysis of wider export curbs since 2009 by the Global Trade Alert, taking in restrictions on agricultural products, oil and gas, IT and medical goods, found that measures were increasing even allowing for crisis-related measures. "}],[{"start":297.65,"text":"“The stock of export policy interventions in force is now more than 10 times larger than it was at the start of the decade,” said Simon Evenett, GTA’s founder and trade expert at IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland."}],[{"start":312.75,"text":"Data visualisation by Janina Conboye"}],[{"start":324.9,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1777417741_4556.mp3"}