The European Union has revived a plan to de-risk its ties with China, adding two proposals to upgrade the bloc’s economic arsenal and unpick its heavy reliance on China for critical minerals, including rare earths, reports the South China Morning Post.
The first of the two blueprints, an economic security communication, aims to provide the EU with an “operating system” on which to manage its many trade, competition and economic weapons—that could be used to counter potential coercion, bullying or the weaponisation of dependencies.
The second proposal is an action plan to decouple from China’s dominance of minerals modelled on the EU’s move away from Russian energy following the conflict in Ukraine. The proposal, named ReSource EU, looks to restrict exports of scrap rare earth permanent magnets by mid-next year, a move it says could meet 20% of EU demand.