How China’s export ban on these 3 materials could impact smartphones and national security

Gallium, germanium, and antimony are key in the production of high-tech products.

China has banned exports of key materials used to make a wide range of products, including smartphones, electric vehicles, radar systems and CT scanners, swiping back at Washington after it expanded export controls to include dozens of Chinese companies that make equipment used to produce advanced computer chips.

Both sides say their controls are justified by national security concerns and both accuse the other of “weaponizing” trade. Analysts say the latest restrictions could have a wide impact on manufacturing in many industries and supply chains.

“Critical mineral security is now intrinsically linked to the escalating tech trade war,” Gracelin Baskaran and Meredith Schwartz of the Center for Strategic International Studies, wrote in a report on Beijing’s decision.

The full impact will depend partly on whether U.S. industries can compensate for any loss of access to the strategically important materials, equipment and components.

Here’s why this could be a tipping point in trade conflict between the two biggest economies, coming at a time when antagonisms already were expected to heat up once President-elect Donald Trump takes office, given his vows to hike tariffs on imports of Chinese-made products.