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Rare Earth Elements And Pakistan: Navigating Global Power Dynamics And Opportunities

18 30
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Since the recent episode of the tariff war between the USA and China, we have heard the term “rare earth elements” on an unprecedented scale. Since then, it has also started cropping up in our political commentaries. This article is an attempt to briefly analyse the item’s global dynamics and their relation with Pakistan on the basis of the data and information which is publicly available.

Rare earth elements (REEs) are a group of minerals, and China controls more than 80% of their ore production and 95% of processing, i.e. most of what is produced elsewhere is also refined in China. In the past few decades, due to their superior properties, the REEs have assumed central importance in the context of green energy and warfare technologies such as missiles and military aircraft.

Hence, when Trump, in a short period of a few weeks, ramped up the tariffs on Chinese goods to 127% on average, it compelled the Chinese to respond by placing some rare earth magnets and seven rare earth elements on an export control list. As around 70% of US REE imports come from China and more than 20 US entities which fell under the axe of the Chinese restrictions were linked to the manufacturing of defence technologies, the Americans were compelled to negotiate. As a result, they had to significantly retract the earlier arbitrary increment against a quid pro quo Chinese assurance of the uninterrupted supply of the REEs. Pakistan’s recent MOUs with US companies in this regard can be viewed in the context of the USA’s given vulnerability and its efforts to diversify the sourcing of REEs and other critical minerals.

Essential Fundamentals

The rare earths are 17 metallic elements which have unusual fluorescent, conductive, and magnetic properties. These make them very effective for several applications when alloyed with conventional metals. The applications include wind turbines, solar panels, electric vehicles, fibre optics, missiles, and communications........

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