Mingyue (Nico) Li

To date, references to rare earth elements (REE) general licenses have appeared in the White House readout, while MOFCOM has not made any public commitment. As a result, information on general licenses is fragmented, informal, and unevenly distributed. This article synthesizes trends from recent member benchmarking to piece together how the mechanism functions and who is best positioned to benefit.

With mandatory centralized traceability and monthly reporting requirements, the new rules grant regulators unprecedented oversight over supply flows and domestic profitability, with repercussions for global price stability.

Companies remain anxious over outstanding export approvals of dual-use items critical to their operations, even while approvals of items like rare earth magnets are picking up. At a recent closed-door meeting, USCBC learned that China’s Ministry of Commerce is exploring new procedures to ease delays.

China unveiled new financial opening measures during the Lujiazui Forum in Shanghai last month, timing several additional policy announcements to coincide with the event. Each summer, the forum convenes top regulators from the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), and the National Financial Regulation Administration (NFRA) to signal policy directions and preview reform priorities for the financial sector.

Over the past month, US-China trade tensions have escalated to unsustainable heights. In response to new US tariffs, China imposed a 125% tariff on all US imports, noting that it will not engage in any further tariff increases as part of a “numbers game.”