EU believes it’s been left out of China easing of historic rare earth curbs

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Washington claims Beijing’s 2022 trade easing is global, but Brussels questions whether it truly applies to the European Union.

The European Union does not believe its industries are covered by a “de facto removal” of China’s historical restrictions on the export of rare earths and other critical minerals announced by the White House on Saturday.

In a fact sheet detailing the outcomes of US President Donald Trump’s summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping last Thursday, the White House said that China “will issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony, and graphite for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers around the world”.

“The general license means the de facto removal of controls China imposed in April 2025 and October 2022,” the statement said, referring to controls on rare earths this year and gallium and germanium dating back to 2022.

At a press conference on Monday, the European Commission confirmed that while it believes the suspension of October 2025’s expansion of April’s restrictions on rare earth exports covers the “entire world”, it remains in negotiations with Beijing over the historical elements.

“Our understanding is that the Chinese suspension applies to the entire world … and we continue to engage with China to understand the precise modalities of that. But that’s our understanding,” said trade spokesman Olof Gill.

When pushed on whether the April controls remain in place, Gill said: “Precisely”.

Last Friday, a team of Chinese negotiators led by Jiang Qianliang, director-general of safety and control in the Commerce Ministry, met with EU counterparts led by top enforcement official Denis Redonnet for talks on export controls that did not succeed in removing the controls.

“There’s ongoing contact, including at [a] political level, and the outcome we want to achieve is very clear. We want there to be a stable and reliable supply of rare earth minerals and other critical inputs from China to the EU,” Gill said.

Also on Friday, EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen met with Dutch-based directors of Nexperia, the Chinese-owned chipmaker at the centre of a geopolitical tussle between the Netherlands and China.

The next day, the White House fact sheet was published, saying: “China will take appropriate measures to ensure the resumption of trade from Nexperia’s facilities in China, allowing production of critical legacy chips to flow to the rest of the world.”

No such progress was mentioned in statements made by Virkkunen following her meeting with the company, which took place a day after the Xi-Trump summit in Busan.

In a post on X after meeting the interim CEO, the Finnish official said that she “reaffirmed our determination to work towards a diplomatic breakthrough” with China regarding Nexperia.

On Monday, the commission refused to say whether Virkkunen was aware at the time of the meeting that the leaders of the United States and China had apparently reached a deal to unlock the flow of chips a day earlier.

“I know it’s nice to have who told what to whom at what precise time for your stories, but we’re not obliged to provide that type of information, nor is it necessarily helpful for what we’re trying to convey here, which is that we’re trying to achieve an outcome,” Gill said in response to questions from the Post.

“Meetings took place last week in order to achieve that outcome. Of course, we are in contact with our global partners, including the US, on a regular basis, because these issues affect us all, therefore it makes sense that we coordinate as far as possible. So we’re not going to go into who said what to whom and when.”

The Nexperia saga erupted on September 30 when Dutch authorities effectively seized control of the company’s operations there, subsequently announcing that they did so to protect economic and national security.

While unsealed court documents showed that the US government had pressured The Hague to remove the Chinese leadership, or face the company being blacklisted, they insisted they acted autonomously.
Government sources claim to have had compelling evidence that the Chinese owners planned to move semiconductor production away from Europe and into China, a move that would have had a serious impact on EU industry. While Nexperia does not make cutting-edge chips, its products are used throughout the automotive supply chain.
In response to the Dutch move, Beijing slapped export controls banning Nexperia’s Dongguan operation from transacting with its European arms.

Last Thursday, however, the US and Chinese leadership reached a deal to de-escalate their trade and tech dispute. Following this, China’s Commerce Ministry on Saturday said it would consider granting export licenses related to Nexperia, while the US was firmer in what it believed had been agreed.

“China will take appropriate measures to ensure the resumption of trade from Nexperia’s facilities in China, allowing production of critical legacy chips to flow to the rest of the world,” read the White House fact sheet.