Chinese president's tour of Asia a 'charm offensive' for trade
Quotable Chinese president's tour of Asia a 'charm offensive' for trade
Tricia Yeoh, an associate professor at University of Nottingham Malaysia, talks about Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Malaysia and if the 'shockwaves' caused by US tariffs will subside.
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The time horizon to do this was yesterday,' Fannon said. Diplomats, automakers and other executives from India, Japan and Europe were urgently seeking meetings with Beijing officials to push for faster approval of rare earth magnet exports, sources told Reuters, as shortages threatened to halt global supply chains. A business delegation from Japan will visit Beijing in early June to meet the Ministry of Commerce over the curbs, and European diplomats from countries with big auto industries have also sought 'emergency' meetings with Chinese officials in recent weeks, Reuters reported. The CLEPA association on Wednesday said that of the hundreds of requests for export licenses made by auto suppliers since early April, only a quarter have been granted so far, with some requests rejected on what the association described as 'highly procedural grounds.' 'Procedures seem to vary from province to province and in several instances IP-sensitive information has been requested,' it said, adding that if the process was not streamlined soon, more plants would likely be affected in the next three to four weeks as inventories depleted. India, where Bajaj Auto warned that any further delays in securing the supply of rare earth magnets from China could 'seriously impact' electric vehicle production, is organizing a trip for auto executives in the next two to three weeks. In May, the head of the trade group representing General Motors, Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai and other major automakers raised similar concerns in a letter to the Trump administration. 'Without reliable access to these elements and magnets, automotive suppliers will be unable to produce critical automotive components, including automatic transmissions, throttle bodies, alternators, various motors, sensors, seat belts, speakers, lights, motors, power steering, and cameras,' the Alliance for Automotive Innovation wrote in the letter.
