China has announced a major suspension of its export ban on several critical minerals to the United States, marking a significant de-escalation in the ongoing trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies. The decision, revealed by China’s Ministry of Commerce on Sunday, November 9, 2025, comes on the heels of a high-profile summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump in South Korea on October 30, 2025, where both leaders agreed to ease some of the most punitive measures of their protracted tariff war.
The export restrictions, originally imposed by Beijing in December 2024, targeted gallium, germanium, antimony, tungsten, and graphite—metals indispensable for manufacturing modern technology. These so-called dual-use goods have applications in both civilian and military industries, ranging from semiconductors and fiber optics to explosives, armor-piercing ammunition, batteries, and nuclear reactors. The ban had severely limited U.S. access to these resources, reverberating across global supply chains and contributing to the trade war’s disruptive effects.
According to the New York Times, China’s Ministry of Commerce has now suspended, for one year, the need for export licenses on these five minerals. The suspension runs until November 27, 2026, providing temporary relief to American manufacturers and defense contractors who rely heavily on Chinese supplies. While the White House had initially described the agreement as a multiyear suspension, Beijing’s move is more measured, offering only a single-year reprieve for now.
This shift follows a period of escalating tariffs and countermeasures that saw duties on both sides soar to triple-digit levels, effectively stalling trade and snarling the flow of goods worldwide. As AFP reported, these prohibitive tariffs hit many sectors hard, with U.S. farmers—a key political constituency for President Trump—particularly affected by Chinese levies on agricultural products like soybeans.
Throughout the trade conflict, China leveraged its dominance over critical minerals as a strategic bargaining chip. Gallium, germanium, and antimony, though not classified as rare earth elements, are vital to vast swathes of the global economy. According to a 2024 European Union report cited by The Straits Times, China accounts for a staggering 94% of the world’s gallium production, which is essential for integrated circuits, LEDs, and photovoltaic panels. For germanium, a key material in fiber optics and infrared technology, China controls 83% of global output. Antimony, meanwhile, is crucial for battery technology and is used by the arms industry to reinforce armor plating and manufacture ammunition.
The suspension also covers tungsten, renowned for its highest melting point among elements and its use in armor-piercing ammunition, as well as graphite, which is indispensable for batteries and nuclear reactors. As The New York Times noted, China is the dominant miner of all five of these minerals, in addition to producing nearly all of the world’s rare earth metals and magnets. Rare earths themselves, while not directly included in the latest suspension, remain a strategic sector dominated by China and are essential for the production of cars, drones, robots, and numerous civilian technologies.
In a brief statement, China’s Commerce Ministry also announced the easing of restrictions on exports of graphite-related products, which had previously been banned under controls on dual-use goods. This move is part of a wider pattern of de-escalation since the Xi-Trump summit. On November 5, 2025, Beijing extended the suspension of additional tariffs on U.S. goods for another year, maintaining them at 10%. Moreover, China ceased applying additional tariffs imposed since March 2025 on soybeans and other U.S. agricultural products, a decision that brought relief to American farmers suffering under the weight of the trade war.
President Trump, for his part, announced at the end of October that China had agreed to suspend for one year the restrictions imposed on October 9, 2025, on the export of rare earths technology. This field, dominated by China, is vital for defense, automotive, and consumer electronics manufacturing. The U.S. administration has been working with a broad array of companies to establish alternative supply chains for these and other critical minerals, but as industry experts point out, building new mines and magnet factories outside of China could take several years or even longer.
“Regardless of what’s going on outside of our borders, America still has to address all of the aspects of the critical minerals supply chain and magnet manufacturing,” said Wade Senti, president of Advanced Magnet Lab, a magnet company based in Melbourne, Florida, in comments to the New York Times. His remarks underscore the ongoing vulnerability of U.S. industry to disruptions in Chinese mineral exports, even as temporary relief measures are put in place.
The recent flurry of announcements has not been without confusion. After the October summit, the White House and Beijing issued statements that diverged in their specifics. While Trump’s administration portrayed the outcome as a sweeping, multiyear suspension of export controls, China’s actions have been more cautious, opting for single-year suspensions and retaining the right to reinstate controls. The Ministry of Commerce in Beijing did not provide an explanation for the delay of over a week in suspending the controls on the five minerals, leaving some ambiguity about the future direction of policy.
Industry observers and policymakers alike are watching closely. The dominance of China in the mining and refining of these minerals gives it significant leverage over global technology and defense industries. As the European Union report highlighted, any disruption in the supply of gallium, germanium, or antimony could ripple through integrated circuit manufacturing, solar energy, and military hardware production worldwide.
For now, the suspension offers a much-needed breathing space. U.S. manufacturers can resume sourcing gallium, germanium, antimony, tungsten, and graphite from China without the immediate threat of export licenses or prohibitive tariffs. American farmers, too, benefit from the cessation of additional tariffs on agricultural exports. Yet, the underlying tensions remain unresolved, and the specter of renewed restrictions looms beyond November 2026.
As both Washington and Beijing signal a willingness to step back from the brink, the world’s supply chains are given a chance to recover from the shocks of the past year. Whether this fragile truce will hold, or whether the mineral wars will flare up again, remains to be seen. But for now, the global economy can exhale—at least for a moment.
