China has extended its suspension of export controls on rare earths and related items to January 10, 2027, in an announcement published on November 9, the day before the pause was due to end. The Commerce Ministry and the General Administration of Customs said six announcements issued on October 9, 2025, would remain suspended from November 11. Announcement No. 70, issued in November 2025, had suspended them until November 10.
The six cover five medium and heavy rare earths (holmium, erbium, thulium, europium and ytterbium), rare earth production equipment, rare earth technologies, lithium battery and graphite anode materials, and synthetic diamonds and other superhard materials. One of them, Announcement No. 61, would require licenses for some foreign-made products containing Chinese-origin rare earths worth 0.1 percent or more of their value. Pillsbury has described it as China’s first extraterritorial export-control rule.
China extended two other suspensions the same day. The State Council Tariff Commission said it would keep a 24 percent additional tariff on US goods suspended for two months from November 10, while retaining a 10 percent tariff, citing the consensus reached when the two countries’ leaders met in Washington. The Commerce Ministry extended for two months its suspension of countermeasures against five US subsidiaries of the South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean. China imposed those countermeasures in October 2025 in response to US Section 301 actions against its maritime, logistics and shipbuilding sectors.
The United States has moved two of its own measures to the same date. The Commerce Department has extended its suspension of a rule covering companies owned 50 percent or more by parties on its restricted lists, and the extension was published in the Federal Register on November 9. The US Trade Representative’s office filed a notice the same day further suspending those Section 301 actions, including fees on maritime transport services and duties on Chinese ship-to-shore cranes, until January 10, saying discussions with China were ongoing.
On November 6, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer held a video call with Vice Premier He Lifeng. Bessent “emphasized the importance of China fully and immediately implementing its commitments made in Busan and raised concerns about recent Chinese actions,” according to the Treasury readout. Greer stressed the importance of China “taking concrete actions to fully implement its past commitments, particularly as they relate to agricultural purchases, rare earths, and other critical minerals,” his office said.
The new Chinese announcement covers only the six October 2025 measures. Licensing requirements that China imposed in April 2025 on seven other rare earths, including samarium, terbium and dysprosium, are not among them. A separate suspension, under Announcement No. 72, lifts until November 27 restrictions on exports to the United States of dual-use items related to gallium, germanium, antimony and superhard materials.
Sources: China’s Ministry of Commerce, Federal Register (USTR notice), US Trade Representative
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By the Control Plane Editorial Team