Greer said Beijing’s rare earth restrictions were an ‘incredibly aggressive’ move that the global community won’t accept.Greer said Beijing’s rare earth restrictions were an ‘incredibly aggressive’ move that the global community won’t accept.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent are heading to Malaysia for a fifth round of in-person trade talks with their Chinese counterparts amid heightened tensions between the two countries.
Greer confirmed the trip in a CNBC “Squawk Box” interview on Oct. 22, where he reiterated that the Chinese regime had disproportionately escalated tensions globally and that it was Beijing’s responsibility to de-escalate.
“It was incredibly aggressive, it was totally disproportional to anything that the U.S., the EU, or Canada, or anybody did,” Greer said, referencing the sweeping rare earths export controls Beijing issued earlier this month.
The European Union has similarly called on Beijing to roll back the restrictions, which would apply to goods containing more than 0.1 percent of 12 rare earths mined or processed in China and are expected to be disruptive to several industries.
“Remember, these are global measures that the Chinese have put in place to purport to control the movement or export of any item containing certain rare earths from one country to another, right, even if China is not one of the parties in the agreement,” Greer said.
The parties previously met four times, in Geneva—where a pause on April trade measures was agreed upon by both sides—London, Stockholm, and Madrid.
Greer rejected Beijing’s narrative that this was a tit-for-tat measure or that other parties, including the United States, had escalated tensions by recapping the timeline of trade negotiations.
In May, Washington agreed to pause its tariffs on China, and Beijing agreed to similarly pause high tariffs and roll back rare earth export controls, which, at the time, covered five minerals. The Chinese did not roll back the controls immediately as they had agreed to, but instead slow-walked the measure for months.
“We kept that promise, and they have not kept theirs,” Greer noted.
Despite that, he stated, ongoing talks were “very cordial and constructive discussions” over the summer.
