China Eases Rare Earth Exports, but Approvals Are Still Slow, Greer Says

Reuters, Bloomberg, and the Telegraph contributed to this report.

Rare earth exports from China to the United States are getting better, but Beijing is still taking its time on some approvals, said US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

Speaking to Bloomberg Television, Greer said China continues to move slowly on some export licenses, forcing US officials to step in on behalf of companies caught in the squeeze.

“I would give them a passing grade on this,” he said. “We’ve certainly seen the rare earths come back up to better levels. Sometimes it’s slow. There are times when we have to go and make our point.”

China’s rare earth export restrictions, introduced in April 2025 after US President Donald Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs, still tightly limit shipments of some materials. That remains true even after a deal last October, under which the White House said China had agreed to let exports flow more freely.

China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Beijing has repeatedly defended the controls and says it approves eligible requests.

Greer is in China with Trump’s delegation for the summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

He said the US recently received several large shipments of yttrium, a rare earth produced only in China and badly short in the US for more than a year. That shortage has hit the semiconductor and aerospace industries.

“Whenever we see an issue, we hear from specific companies, we engage with our Chinese counterparts and we find them to be constructive,” Greer said.

Reuters reported in April that China had approved several large yttrium exports, though shipments still lag far behind earlier levels.