General Discussions, page-30957

You make some valid points.Australia has a trade surplus of around $B81 with China and so we are very susceptible to any retaliation China may take if we did what I said re tariffs on EVs.We saw how wine,lobsters etc have suffered.The US is probably the only country that could take the action it has(IRA and tariffs) because it has a very big car manufacturing industry and a lot to loose politically and economically if it were to loose a substantial part of its car industry.It has been content to buy cheap graphite from China but has now realised the risk this presents to supply if it were to continue along that path.That is why I think US participants would have undoubtedly been in discussion with RNU about future contracts of graphite.In my opinion the IRA and graphite tariffs has bought about a stalling of negotiations until the US has sufficient graphite supply to be able to bring on ex China supply