China Removes All Export Restrictions on Molybdenum, Cancels Tungsten Quotas

摘要

China's Ministry of Commerce has canceled export quotas for molybdenum and tungsten in 2015, an apparent response to a WTO ruling in August against China's restrictions on the metals. In a notice dated Dec. 24, 2014, and posted on its website Dec. 29, the ministry listed approved exporters and quotas of rare metals in 2015. The notice did not include quotas for molybdenum or tungsten, two metals that have been the subject of a trade dispute since 2012. The notice limited tungsten exports to 13 companies, but included no list of molybdenum exporters. The ministry's omission of molybdenum exporters signals "the end of all restrictions on exports of the rare metal," noted a Dec. 30, 2014, article in the China Daily, China's official English-language newspaper. The change comes after China lost an appeal at the World Trade Organization in a case that the U.S., Japan and the European Union brought in March 2012, the article said.