FILE PHOTO: Workers transport soil containing rare earth elements for export at a port in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, China, October 31, 2010. The new trade steps were Trump's reaction to China dramatically expanding its rare earth element export controls. It could escalate a trade war that Washington and Beijing paused earlier this year after painstaking diplomacy. China produces over 90 percent of the world's processed rare earths and rare earth magnets. It also required foreign rare earth producers that use Chinese materials to comply with its rules.
