What European Union in the "Age of Uncertainty”? Weathering the Geopolitical Storms in a World of Perpetual Crises

A world of risks and uncertainties can also be a world of opportunities. How and how quickly the EU adapts to the socio-political, economic, energy and climate transitions at hand, and how it responds to geopolitical shifts and shocks, will determine whether it can sustain its role and standing on the international stage.

A Comparative Study on the Export Competitiveness of Rare Earth Products from China, the United States, Russia and India

This paper evaluates and compares the export competitiveness of rare-earth products from China, the US, Russia, and India between 2006 and 2020 using the CMS model and the WRCA index. The results show that (1) the competitiveness of the four countries’ rare-earth products has changed differently. The overall competitiveness of rare-earth products of China, the US, and India has decreased, whereas the competitiveness of Russia’s rare-earth products has increased. (2) The factors inhibiting the development of the competitiveness of rare-earth products in the four countries are different. In China and India they are market factors and product factors, in the US it is the overall market share factor, and in Russia it is the market factor. (3) The competitiveness of rare-earth products varies greatly among the four countries. China has the highest rare-earth export competitiveness, whereas the US has significantly lower export competitiveness of rare-earth products than China. Russia and India do not have comparative advantages. (4) The four countries have different trends in the evolution of the competitiveness of rare-earth products. The export competitiveness of rare-earth products of China and India tends to decline, whereas that of the United States and Russia tends to rise. Based on the above findings, the paper puts forward corresponding policy recommendations.

Current Situation and Optimization Countermeasures of Cotton Subsidy in China Based on WTO Rules

Cotton plays an important role in China’s agricultural production structure and international trade;therefore, China has implemented a variety of cotton subsidy policies. Since China joined the WTO in 2001, WTO rules have become substantive constraints on its agricultural subsidy policy. Therefore, in order to prevent appeal cases of China’s cotton subsidy, in this article, we investigate the current situation and optimization countermeasures with respect to China’s cotton subsidies based on WTO rules. According to calculation of the level of China’s cotton subsidy support under WTO rules, it currently exceeds 8.5% of the cotton production value. Secondly, we estimate the change in cotton subsidy effect when the support level of China’s cotton subsidy policy is directly reduced to 8.5%;the results show that such a reduction would have a considerable impact on the production scale. However, due to the constraints of the political and economic goals of cotton subsidies, the Chinese government can only “box shift” subsidies by changing the subsidy method and object in order to comply with WTO rules. Finally, from the perspective of how to use cotton subsidies to improve the efficiency of production factors, the Chinese government should focus on optimizing the cotton subsidy policy according to three aspects: improving the Amber Box subsidies, expanding the Green Box subsidies and increasing the Blue Box subsidies so as to maintain the existing level of cotton subsidy support.

Analysis of the Idiosyncratic Risk Characteristics from Commodity Markets

The main purpose of this study is to explore the commodity characteristics of crude oil market and gold market, and use CBP-GARCH model to capture whether there is instantaneous co-jump variation between the two markets when unexpected information occurs. The empirical results show that there is a phenomenon of volatility clustering between commodity markets. When the interest rate spread of stock market and long-term and short-term bonds expands, it has a significant impact on gold, but not in crude oil commodities, showing that there are different linkage between commodity market and financial market. In addition, when there is a transmission of market information, the jump intensity of crude oil will be higher than that of gold market, and there are instantaneous co-jump variation characteristics. This phenomenon can be attributed to the fact that the crude oil market is affected by market supply and demand, and the gold market plays a mixed characteristic of hedging and investment. Therefore, the empirical results of this study also suggest that investors should consider the asymmetric jump fluctuation variation between commodity markets when the market unexpected information is generated, so as to effectively control the risk degree in the portfolio.

America, You Better Believe That Africa Matters

Rich in Resources, but Mired in Poverty Africa's resources, its strategic minerals such as gold, copper, diamonds, cobalt, and oil, as well as its human resources during the height of the global slave trade, have always been as much a curse as a blessing to the continent. [...]far too many foreign assistance programs, as well meaning as they are, create dependence on foreign aid, prop up autocratic rulers, and feed into corruption, failing to alleviate the pervasive poverty. Africa's growing young population will have an impact on the world -whether good or bad depends on how Africans and the world act in the present. Because wars have destroyed so much of the colonial infrastructure, many young Africans have, for instance, never experienced analog telephones. With the degradation of the Amazon rainforest, which now emits more CO2 than it absorbs, it is vitally important to stemming the rise of global warming caused by excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

China's Global Monopoly on Rare-Earth Elements

This article delivers a novel economic analysis of US dependence on China for rare-earth elements and sheds lights on how Western nations may exploit "limit pricing" to break China's global monopoly in rare-earth element production and refinement. This analytical framework, supported by a comprehensive literature review, the application of microeconomic and industrial organization concepts, and two case-study scenarios, provides several policy recommendations to address an important foreign policy challenge for the United States.

Application of Ionic Liquids for the Recycling and Recovery of Technologically Critical and Valuable Metals

Population growth has led to an increased demand for raw minerals and energy resources;however, their supply cannot easily be provided in the same proportions. Modern technologies contain materials that are becoming more finely intermixed because of the broadening palette of elements used, and this outcome creates certain limitations for recycling. The recovery and separation of individual elements, critical materials and valuable metals from complex systems requires complex energy-consuming solutions with many hazardous chemicals used. Significant pressure is brought to bear on the improvement of separation and recycling approaches by the need to balance sustainability, efficiency, and environmental impacts. Due to the increase in environmental consciousness in chemical research and industry, the challenge for a sustainable environment calls for clean procedures that avoid the use of harmful organic solvents. Ionic liquids, also known as molten salts and future solvents, are endowed with unique features that have already had a promising impact on cutting-edge science and technologies. This review aims to address the current challenges associated with the energy-efficient design, recovery, recycling, and separation of valuable metals employing ionic liquids.

Mining Waste as a Potential Additional Source of HREE and U for the European Green Deal: A Case Study of Bangka Island (Indonesia)

The European Commission has adopted the European Green Deal strategy, which aims to achieve climate neutrality in the EU by 2050. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to shift the economy toward the use of green and renewable energy. Critical raw materials (CRMs), Li, Co, REE, Te, Sc and others, are used in renewable energy sources (RES) production. The EU lacks its own CRM deposits, and additionally, the access to already identified deposits is limited, which is making the EU countries search for alternative CRM sources. One such source of CRMs may be mining waste generated on the Indonesian island of Bangka as a result of processing cassiterite-bearing sands. Studies of the mineral composition of the waste using the XRD method reveal rich contents of xenotime (0.79–17.55 wt%), monazite (1.55–21.23 wt%), zircon (1.87–64.35 wt%) and other minerals, carriers of valuable metals, such as Sn, Ti, Nb, Ta. The point mineral chemistry analyses were performed using EPMA. Xenotime is the main carrier of heavy rare earth elements (HREE), especially the “most critical” HREEs: Gd2O3 (1.42–7.16 wt%), Dy2O3 (2.28–11.21 wt%), Er2O3 (2.44–7.85 wt%), and Yb2O3 (1.71–7.10 wt%). Xenotime is characterized by a complex internal structure resulting from metasomatic processes occurring during their formation. In SEM-BSE imaging, they show zonation of internal structure, which is the effect of an HREE, Y, Si and U substitution in the crystal structure. On the other hand, thorite ThSiO4 and uranothorite (Th,U)SiO4 inclusions are present in xenotimes. The ICP-MS/ES studies of tailings reveal very high contents of HREE + Y (up to 7.58 wt%), U (up to 0.11), Th (up to 0.75 wt%) and Sc (132 ppm). A CRM source diversification is part of the strategy to ensure the security of raw materials for countries of the European Union and the green transformation of the continent. Bilateral EU–Indonesia cooperation in the geological exploration and development of primary and secondary sources may contribute to an increase in the supply of HREEs to the global market.

Comments on ‘Multinational Enterprises and International Cartels: The Strategic Implications of De-gobalization’ by Peter J. Buckley and Mark Casson

[...]collaborative strategies in such industries often are supported by federal government departments in the name of stabilizing production at greater-than-market-demand levels, often by providing price supports to keep more marginal farms and mines in operation. Making other locations cost competitive for mining and smelting processes operated by private enterprises will likely require cooperation to minimize price competition and to reduce costs as much as possible. [...]rising populations and climate change seem likely to raise the threat of food shortages due to drought, flood, and political machinations. [...]even though over 60% of TSMC's revenues came from IC design firms based in North America, actual production of the most advanced chips is concentrated on one small island that is subject to earthquakes and tropical storms and is at the heart of China's political objectives of consolidating what it sees as its historical territories.