USA TODAY / AP: The Obama administration is bringing a new trade case against China that seeks to pressure the rising economic power to end its export restrictions on key materials used to manufacture hybrid car batteries, flat-screen televisions and other high-tech goods…
Senior Obama administration officials say the U.S. will ask the World Trade Organization to facilitate talks with China over its curtailment of exports of rare earth minerals. The U.S. is bringing the case to the WTO along with the European Union and Japan, the officials said…
China has a stranglehold on the global supply of 17 rare earth minerals that are essential for making high-tech goods, including hybrid cars, weapons, flat-screen TVs, mobile phones, mercury-vapor lights, smartphones and camera lenses. The materials also are used in the manufacture of tiny motors, such as those used to raise and lower car windows and in consumer electronics…. (more)
