What do you think of the trade agreement between the USA and China?

[Julie07]

[RavVid]

I think the trade dispute between the US and China has been healthy for world peace.

China has become very aggressive in recent years and I would hope the trade war would give them pause for thought when they contemplate invading Taiwan. It would be over optimistic for China to expect the US will continue to buy their shit in the event of kinetic war. Europe too.

Rare earths deals should give them further thought by illustration. The major industrial countries are running away fast and it won't be long till China's monopoly is broken. Australian company Lynas announced it is expanding it's Malaysian refinery earlier this week and is is expecting this extension to be producing in April. There seems to be a common assumption that production elsewhere will take a long time but Lynas is already separating oxides quite well and Australia Strategic Minerals are already metalizing oxides. Predominantly it is a WW2 scaling issue at most.

Things can change very fast is my point. Vietnam, Malaysia and India are pretty well positioned to take away a lot of manufacturing from China.

China might consider minding it's manners more than it has, is my hope of the outcome of the trade disputes..

[Julie07]

Replacing China in the rare earths market would take years, even in the most optimistic scenarios.

The reality is that Trump did not take long to go to China to negotiate, while he despised Europe, and Europe did not react.

Look at what Trump has conceded on the maritime front. Trump had introduced these taxes precisely to rebuild a strong American navy. It's turning into a farce.

[RavVid]

Trump & the US needed to get immediate access to rare earth metals and necessarily used threats and concessions. It is always a matter of getting what you most need/want and compromising on what you don't need so much at this moment.

With rare earths, it is difficult to have a modern military force without them, so it would seem line-of-sight to cover off immediate access immediately.

More the point I was making is that there are companies that are already extracting, concentrating, separating and finally metalizing rare earth metals. So these processes are not unknown outside of China. It is indeed more a scaling issue. For example Lynas transforming from the largest producer outside of China to being a large producer including China.

Mines are where the development time lies. First workable deposits need to be found. A lot of time goes into approvals and environmental studies. It takes at least a decade to get a mine working. Cutting out approvals, environmental studies, first nation people negotiations would shorten time frames considerably so again it comes down to if WW2 willpower exists.

Of course there are existing mines and even pre-mined ore stocks that were just dumped in a back paddock as over burden to get at tungsten ore.

A continuous pipeline might take some time but that doesn't mean short term solutions don't exist.

[Julie07]

I prefer your second comment lol

[RavVid]

:) :). by the way after China embargoed Japan from rare earths, it took Lynas less than a year to start shipping from when they got a signed contract.

Since Virginia's have something like 4 or 8 tonnes of rare earths and since we want nuclear powered subs it is in our interests to make sure the US gets what it needs. There is a fair bit of money flowing into rare earth companies. Off take arrangements as was as equity and friendly loans.

Europe seems to be talking to Canada but it is hard to get far away from Australian miners :).

[RavVid]

I am curious - have you heard of CANZUK? Canada-Australia-New Zealand-United Kingdom.

There are some thoughts that recent events will give this political union some impetus.

[Effably]

To the best of my knowledge there is no trade agreement.

What has been agreed on is a preliminary understanding that USA will withdraw all tariffs on China. In return China will allow USA to keep buying minerals. This is the loose discussion they have agreed to have.

To anyone paying attention, China posed the threat of mineral restrictions before the meeting. That was their political chip. It was enough for USA to withdraw completely. Which, while humiliating, was honestly the right call.

But we really must stop calling a loose framework for discussion a trade agreement. It is literally a "We are open to talking more about this". Nothing else.

That said. China ultimately wants it and can sneak in harder monitoring of vital resources now. Basically improving their future leverage. USA ultimately wants no trouble and going back on illegally imposed tariffs that hurt their own country is not a loss to anyone. So, good? I mean, much worse than if none of it happened since the only real outcome is USA having a weaker economy and China having a stronger global position. But, given previous mismanagement, fine. There is no real reason both parties can't see this through.

[Tamera952]

What trade agreement? He was going to raise hell and go after big bad China, …and it was all nasty TACO scented bluster and capitulation! The master ‘negotiator’ is a big ‘ol LOSER LIAR!! Same as Alaska, …big ‘Ol photo opp. He’s the absolute WORSE, and going to spin this as something monumental, just you watch.
And if that is not bad enough, what about his demented double-jerk-off dancing in South Korea? Or his idle wondering in Japan? …. Again, every time he leaves the country, it’s a shit-show and an embarrassment.

[FreyaRed]

China will export rare earths for GPU chips and aircraft parts. Tariffs will be renegotiated and probably just adopted to real trade deficits between US and China.
China made all tariffs and technology embargo efforts of Trump practically ineffective with threat to exclude US from getting rare earths. This was a card Trump couldn't do anything against without starting hot WW3.
The man on Epstein list will try to sell it as a victory but it's not, like everything he did until now.

[Ironco]

What a load of crap... But you do you.
I'll still follow what you have to say, though.

[FreyaRed]

@Ironco Then enlighten us with your superior opinion. I want something to laugh about.

[BonzoInBitburg]

It isn't a deal, just an agreement to make an agreement. The US isn't releasing too many details but so far it doesn't seem that great because China knew he was desperate to ship some soybeans before it was too late. Korea totally fleeced the US. Trump's problem is he's trying to get favorable deals with nations that are better than him at math.

[OneViewpoint]

tRump has been owned by the Chinese again. What was agreed to was an agreement in concept. There are zero contracts that would obligate the Chinese to buy anything.

What tRump won was another sound bite to market the myth that he has China under his boot heel. And his MAGA morons are lapping up the lies once again.

[Paige90]

Historically, they haven't followed what they agreed to. Just like Putin.

[Apostate_______]

That orange baboon will get upset over something next week, have one of his childish tantrums, reneg on it, and then announce 157% tariffs on China or some ridiculous number he pulls out of his fat ass.

[Kelley1]

If the governments will keep their dirty hands off, it is benefical to the people of both countries.

[DryGermanGuy]

That ship has basically sailed 100 years ago.

[Syntosi]

Yet to be seen. Last I heard Trump only secured a "provisional deal" with China which is not the same.

[AviatorTom]

It seems to change every few days. It's a very flexible "agreement", if one can call it that

[mysteriousNicholas]

Jokingly said by me "helps China grow big and strong" lol lol chuckle chuckle 🤭🤭🤣

[exitseven]

It is a good start but I would not trust President Xi.

[Julie07]

What happened is quite humiliating for the USA.

Trump rushed into negotiations on issues that he considered important, particularly the port facility that Trump had set up precisely to rebuild a solid maritime base for the US.

[DrPepper12]

What trade agreement? He hasn't made ONE DEAL YET!! He has gotten press releases & assurances.

[KostasKouvalis]

I don't know anything about it. I was out of town and haven't been watching the news

[beefcakebradybatson]

Notice that China is one-upping America, especially over rare earth? (No, not the 70's band!!!)

[Pterodon]

Better than bidens

[Julie07]

Its a joke

[Pterodon]

Still better than bidens

[Julie07]

No. Biden, Trump, and Obama are the worst presidents in the history of this country.

[eagle1951]

interesting