china defends tough stance on ree, page-22

moorookamick,

"IMO China is more interested in the hi tec value added products derived
from rare earths and not so much interested in rare earths per se."

Please explain?

You can not have one without the other.

Just to raise a point about the USA-AUS FTA. (even though it is not of great importance to the supply of rare earth to USA).

Lynas Australia exports rare earths to Malaysia, Australia is the Country of origin of the rare earths. The rare earths are not sold to anyone and remain the property of Lynas Australia. In Malaysia the rare earths are separated from unwanted materials and the end product is pure individual elements of rare earths, that originated from Australia and are owned by Lynas Australia. For arguments sake let's say Lynas Australia then imports the rare earths back into Australia, the rare earths can be traded with the USA under the FTA, although this is only for arguments sake I do not believe Lynas Australia will have to import rare earths from Malaysia to qualify for the FTA.

So technically the rare earth is still a product of Australia and would be treated so in the USA-AUS FTA.

This is of course IMHO.
My opinion is based on information sourced here:
http://www.wto.org/index.htm