On Tuesday, China banned the export of gallium, germanium, antimony, and industrial diamonds to the U.S., in response to U.S. trade and investment restrictions on Chinese technology companies. Though tit-for-tat tariffs occasionally lead to bilateral trade agreements, protectionism is more frequently a response in kind. China's rare materials ban is the latest such response in the ongoing U.S.–China semiconductor trade war.
China's ban was a direct response to the Bureau of Industry and Security's (BIS) interim final rule, also filed Tuesday, which updated export controls on advanced semiconductors and the machinery used to make them. BIS's rule aims to hinder China's capacity to produce advanced-node integrated circuits by restricting "the export of 24 types of chipmaking tools that were not previously targeted," according to The Financial Times.
