China announced Tuesday it is banning exports to the United States of gallium, germanium, antimony and other key high-tech materials with potential military applications, as a general principle, lashing back at U.S. limits on semiconductor-related exports.
The Chinese Commerce Ministry announced the move after the Washington expanded its list of Chinese companies subject to export controls on computer chip-making equipment, software and high-bandwidth memory chips. Such chips are needed for advanced applications.
The ratcheting up of trade restrictions comes as President-elect Donald Trump has been threatening to sharply raise tariffs on imports from China and other countries, potentially intensifyi
Now those exports from China will be made indirectly
At a much higher price. Between things like this, the tariffs, and playing populist politics with the interest rates, US inflation graphs might start coming in logarithmic scales.
I’m not sure gallium, germanium, or antimony will play much of a role in inflation as they are not generally in consumer purchases. US inflation is almost entirely from inelastic goods like housing, medical, education, and food. Sure, these will get worse with tariffs but China would have to ban the exportation of their manufactured goods to really impact US prices.
https://oec.world/en/profile/hs/germanium-oxides-and-zirconium-dioxide https://oec.world/en/profile/hs/antimony https://oec.world/en/profile/hs/gallium-germanium-hafnium-indium-niobium-columbium-rhenium-and-vanadium-articles-thereof-unwrought-including-waste-and-scrap-powders
China exported less than a billion dollars worth combined of all these metals, even if you quintupled the price it would still not be enough to meaningfully impact US inflation. Meanwhile, the US imported 8.3 billion dollars worth of steel and mostly from Canada, a country that is being threatened with annexation if it doesn’t make that steel significantly more expensive for US buyers.
I just can’t with Trump anymore. The GOP would never go for it simply because it would blow up the comfy political scene they have going. And if we’re doing it violently… Well I wouldn’t want to be the one seeing what new war crimes the Canadians invent this time. (they’re responsible for something like half of the geneva convention that deals with soldiers fighting soldiers.)
I don’t really think it will happen either, it feels like a really poor decision but I thought the same thing about Russia invading Ukraine and that shit still happened.
Technically he has the power. Double technically though Congress can shut him down right away, or even make an invasion illegal while he’s still mobilizing troops.
It will shift manufacturing desire. It will become cheaper to manufacture in Europe and ship to the US, costing jobs and tax dollars to the US economy. Otherwise, it will cause prices to increase in the US. You’re dismissing it as non consequential, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
We’re heavily subsidizing chip production in the US. If this actually has any impact (China isn’t the only exporter of this stuff) we would literally just pay Raytheon or Lockheed, (Boeing is in the dog house, they know what they did) to refine it from our own mines. These are all byproducts of more common metals we already mine.