US to Face ‘Devastating’ Fallout if China Clamps Down on Rare Earths – Expert
US President Donald Trump, left, shakes hands with China’s President Xi Jinping during a meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, June 29, 2019.
The proposed 100% US tariffs on China could trigger a potential nightmare for America’s defense and aerospace companies like Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman, General Dynamics, and SpaceX, according to Jeff J. Brown, author of The China Trilogy.Rare earth metals power weapons, aerospace, electronics, renewables, cars, and medicine, so America’s military-industrial heavyweights are probably “squirming” right now, Jeff J. Brown, who is also founder of Seek Truth From Facts Foundation, told Sputnik.“China has found America’s Achilles heel in this respect and has got Uncle Sam in a very serious bind,” he speculated.According to Brown, it will take years for the US to develop its own rare earth sector, from mining to processing. America’s R&D on rare earth alternatives and recycling is years off, so hiking US tariffs to 100% only gives China more reason to tighten its rare earth chokehold, stressed the pundit.
Tariff Threats Will Blow Up In US’ Face
China-US trade is no longer the powerhouse it once was, underscored Brown, pointing out that:As the US increasingly weaponized the dollar, China pivoted to trading with Russia, Asia, Africa, and Latin America China has slashed its US dollar holdings — from 79% of reserves in 2005 to 58% in 2019 and falling — while keeping total reserves steady around $3 trillion China has been stacking gold and boosting its own currency, the renminbi, prepping a move away from the dollar Estimates suggest China’s gold stash is closer to 25,000 metric tons, not the official 2,200 metric tons Through BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, ASEAN, and bilateral deals, China is ditching the US dollar in cross-border trade. Furthermore, Russia and China are developing an interbank payment system geared towards dumping the West’s SWIFT payment system, “which has been turned into a political sledgehammer,” Brown says.
EconomyUS’s New China Tariffs Will Boomerang Back on Americans: Here’s Why11 October, 15:35 GMT
