Rare Earth Elements

RonJohn

RonJohn

Helluva Engineer
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4,522
Not a reason to cave on trade deals. The US (and the rest of the world) is/are pretty much dependent on China for REEs. It would be better if other people in the world produced them.

I haven't seen any actual description of what the goals of the Trump administration are with respect to China. He says some confusing things. About Huawei, he said:
"Huawei is something that's very dangerous. You look at what they've done from a security standpoint, from a military standpoint, it's very dangerous." ... "So it's possible that Huawei even would be included in some kind of a trade deal. If we made a deal, I could imagine Huawei being possibly included in some form."
Click to expand...

Is the concern about Huawei related to security, or to trade. If it is trade, then security shouldn't be mentioned. If it is security, then nothing done on a trade deal could make a difference.
 
Whiskey_Clear

Whiskey_Clear

Banned
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10,486
RonJohn said:
Not a reason to cave on trade deals. The US (and the rest of the world) is/are pretty much dependent on China for REEs. It would be better if other people in the world produced them.

I haven't seen any actual description of what the goals of the Trump administration are with respect to China. He says some confusing things. About Huawei, he said:

Is the concern about Huawei related to security, or to trade. If it is trade, then security shouldn't be mentioned. If it is security, then nothing done on a trade deal could make a difference.
Click to expand...

Trade sanctions can certainly be used to deal with matters not directly related to trade alone.
 
RonJohn

RonJohn

Helluva Engineer
Messages
4,522
Whiskey_Clear said:
Trade sanctions can certainly be used to deal with matters not directly related to trade alone.
Click to expand...

They can. However, if Huawei devices are a national security risk because there are back doors in their routers that the Chinese government can use to spy on US companies or the US government, then no trade agreement with China can solve that. That is like a neighbor saying: "Your pit bull is extremely dangerous and I want you to put up a fence to keep him in your yard, but if we reach an agreement to help keep each others lawns trimmed then he is free to roam around my house all he wants."
 
Whiskey_Clear

Whiskey_Clear

Banned
Messages
10,486
RonJohn said:
They can. However, if Huawei devices are a national security risk because there are back doors in their routers that the Chinese government can use to spy on US companies or the US government, then no trade agreement with China can solve that. That is like a neighbor saying: "Your pit bull is extremely dangerous and I want you to put up a fence to keep him in your yard, but if we reach an agreement to help keep each others lawns trimmed then he is free to roam around my house all he wants."
Click to expand...

Smh at comparison. They can be used to punish bad actions. Then other steps can be taken to address the security concern...like using those tariffs to prop up a domestic competitor to Huawei....exclude Chinese manufacturers from government purchases etc.
 
RonJohn

RonJohn

Helluva Engineer
Messages
4,522
Whiskey_Clear said:
Smh at comparison. They can be used to punish bad actions. Then other steps can be taken to address the security concern...like using those tariffs to prop up a domestic competitor to Huawei....exclude Chinese manufacturers from government purchases etc.
Click to expand...

I do agree that sanctions can be used to punish bad actions. However, Trump's statement was:

"Huawei is something that's very dangerous. You look at what they've done from a security standpoint, from a military standpoint, it's very dangerous. So it's possible that Huawei even would be included in some kind of a trade deal. If we made a deal, I could imagine Huawei being possibly included in some form."

He said that Huawei is dangerous, but if we make a trade deal then Huawei will be OK. That is exactly like the pit bull comparison. I don't understand how a trade deal with China can make Huawei any less dangerous.
 
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