US reciprocal tariffs to hit rare earth magnets, upstream products exempt

This week, the US announced sweeping “reciprocal import tariffs” on 186 countries and territories to come into effect in two phases.

Starting April 5, 2025, all countries and territories will be tariffed at a rate of 10%, over and above any existing tariffs or levies in place. As of April 9, 2025, higher country-specific tariffs will apply, over and above existing tariffs and levies prior to April 5th.

The latest round of world-reaching reciprocal tariffs follows the imposition of 10% import tariffs on China in February followed by an additional 10% in March. When China’s 34% country-specific tariff comes into effect next week, the US will be levying a combined 54% import tariff on imports of goods from China, with some exemptions.

In February and March, the tariff increases on China were articulated as applying to “all articles” imported from the nation. However, the US International Trade Commission ultimately published a list of HTS product codes in March for which the tariffs apply and rare earth products, including magnets, were not on the list, indicating they are exempt by omission.

Accompanying the latest announcement of reciprocal tariffs this week, the US published an annex of exemptions, which includes REE metals, REE compounds, and mixtures thereof, but does not include neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) or samarium-cobalt (SmCo), suggesting the baseline 10% tariff increase from April 5th and the higher country-specific rates from April 9th will apply to rare earth permanent magnets but not upstream products.

Irrespective of US plans to tariff imports of magnets from China, the latter today announced plans to restrict exports of high-performance magnets and other rare earth products on grounds of national security.

Meet with alternative suppliers

Meet with alternative rare earth miners and magnet producers in Toronto in September 2025 for Rare Earth Mines, Magnets & Motors 2025 where we’ll explore this topic further with leading market participants and industry experts.

The two-day event will bring together business and technical leaders from across the global mine-to-OEM supply chain for high caliber discussions and networking at a 5-star venue.

Key themes of this year’s conference will include robotics, automation, advanced air mobility, and the emerging mine-to-magnet supply chain coming together upstream.

Special guest: Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple

More information: www.adamasevent.com