First and foremost, it’s important to know that China is the main driver when it comes to REE prices and the rare earths market as a whole. The country is the world’s leading rare earths producer by a wide margin, putting out over 90 percent of supply. China has such a monopoly on the sector that REE prices spiked in 2010 and 2011 when the country cut exports. That sparked a boom for rare earths companies and mining projects around the world, as they sought to create reliable sources of rare earths supply outside of China. Many rare earths mining projects outside of China failed to thrive when REE prices fell again. In 2014, the World Trade Organization ruled against Chinese export quotas for rare earths, and China removed its industry caps in January 2015. The country also eliminated its export tariffs for rare earths in May 2015, leading to a further fall in REE prices. The ongoing trade war between the US and China has added a layer of complication to the rare earth metals sector. While it’s been suggested that the country’s hold on the market is weakening, rare earth minerals and metals were not included when the Trump administration placed tariffs on US$200 billion of Chinese goods, a move that points to America’s dependence on the Asian nation. In February 2021, US President Joe Biden signed an executive order aimed at reviewing shortcomings in the nation's domestic supply chains for rare earths, medical devices, computer chips and other critical resources. The next month, the US Department of Energy announced a US$30 million initiative to research and secure domestic supply chains for rare earths and battery metals such as cobalt and lithium. In June 2022, Biden invoked the Defense Product Act to increase the domestic production of critical minerals such as rare earths, as well as to fund feasibility studies and expand existing resources. Furthermore, in September 2022, the Biden government announced US$156 million in funding to support the creation of "first-of-a-kind facility to extract and separate REEs and critical minerals from unconventional sources like mining waste." Even with these efforts, China remains the heavyweight for now, so it’s important that investors interested in the rare earths space keep track of what the country is up to in terms of production.