Japanese Trade Minister Akihiro Ohata said today he would like to talk with China soon about maintaining a steady supply of rare earths from the world's largest supplier. He was quoted in Reuters after a news conference Wednesday saying, "I'd like to go before the regular parliament session starts (later this month)." Japan has been busy shoring up agreements to obtain a pipeline of rare earths from a diverse list of nations both on the Asian continent and elsewhere.

The Commerce Ministry in China announced today that it will cut its shipments of rare earth minerals by more than 11% for 2011. China's rare earth export quotas in 2010 already declined by 40% from 2009 levels.

With a lot of pressure through international forums for China to let the yuan float upward, China may be following another path. China is raising export taxes on key commodities and materials including rare earths. English News China (News.Xinhuanet) reports that the Ministry of Finance in China is planning to raise taxes on export of some rare earths effective January 1st, 2011. Neither rates nor specific rare earths were mentioned in the statement on the ministry's website. The rationale was unrelated to exchange rate references and rests on energy savings and environmental protection.