The deepening trade war between US and China threatened to spill over into critical battery raw material markets in Q3 2018 with the Trump administration proposing a wave of new sanctions on Chinese imports.
In June, the US government took the decision to introduce a 25% ad valorem tax on Chinese imports with an annual trade value of around $34bn USD and by early-July the administration threatened to extend this to a further $16bn worth of products, as well as a separate 10% tariff on goods with a value of around $200bn.
This additional 10% tariff, which came in . . .