Euractiv notes that “with 11 official trips this year, EU commissioners have visited Asia’s second-largest economy far more than any other non-EU country, a fact that has largely flown under the radar.”
Against the background of trade war against China (50% tariffs against Chinese steel, sanctions imposed due to charges that China backs the Russian war machine), the EU motive is to “learn from Japan” how to develop alternatives to imports of rare earths from China, which the Japanese did after a Chinese ban of exports to the Japan after an incident at sea in 2010. Japan found an alternative in Australia.
