China lifts gallium, germanium ban, halts US shipping probes

China has officially dropped its export ban on gallium, germanium, and many other high-grade minerals, while also freezing its retaliatory probe into U.S. shipbuilding.

The announcement came Friday from China’s Ministry of Commerce, and it follows the October 30 meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Busan, South Korea, where both sides agreed to slow down their long-running trade fight.

The suspended restrictions, which were first introduced on October 9, had placed tight controls on rare earth elements, lithium battery materials, and industrial processing technologies, which are all critical to both military hardware and the semiconductor industry.

China halts dual-use material controls after Busan meeting

As part of the same trade de-escalation, Beijing has reversed its December 2024 decision to restrict the export of key high-strength materials, including antimony, synthetic diamonds, and boron nitrides, in addition to gallium and germanium.

These materials fall under China’s category of dual-use items, meaning they can be used in both civilian products and military systems. Their previous restriction was a direct response to Washington’s broader semiconductor export bans.

China also suspended strict checks that had been introduced on exports of graphite, rules that required U.S. buyers to explain exactly how and where the materials would be used.

That rule, which came into effect last December, had made life harder for American companies needing the mineral for electric vehicle production and missile guidance systems. Those checks are now also on pause for a year.

These export relaxations don’t just happen out of nowhere. China controls a majority of the world’s production of critical minerals and rare earths, and it has used that dominance to push back during trade fights.

By pausing these restrictions, Beijing is temporarily lowering its weapon of economic leverage in exchange for U.S. concessions.

U.S. drops shipbuilding probe, China shelves port fee plan

While the minerals story grabbed headlines, the trade deal also included another major concession: Donald Trump’s administration has frozen its investigation into China’s shipbuilding industry.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) said in a statement that the probe was suspended at midnight Monday, with talks set to continue on unresolved issues. The USTR did not specify what those unresolved issues were, but said further discussions with Beijing will take place over the next twelve months.

Shortly after that, China’s Ministry of Transport followed up with its own announcement, confirming it was also putting its retaliatory measures on ice. That included halting a plan to impose extra port fees on vessels coming from the U.S., which had been scheduled to kick in this quarter.

These twin decisions remove immediate cost pressures for companies shipping goods between both countries. If the planned port fees had gone into effect, it would’ve raised freight costs and disrupted deliveries of key global commodities like oil, not to mention commercial goods.

The fee standoff had originally started in mid-October, when China announced its maritime investigation in direct response to the U.S. launching its own.

In addition to lifting those probes, Washington agreed to delay a September 29 rule that would’ve blacklisted Chinese firms’ subsidiaries by placing them on the U.S. entity list. This move blocks them from doing business with American suppliers.

That rule has now been shelved, for the time being, as part of the broader understanding reached in Busan.

On the tariff side, Trump agreed to slash duties on Chinese imports by 10 percentage points, and to keep his “reciprocal tariffs,” originally scheduled to ramp up again, on hold until November 10, 2026.

That decision removes a key pressure point that’s been weighing on tech companies, manufacturers, and the global supply chain.

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