关键词: 稀土, 产业现状, 战略资源, 政策选择

Abstract:

Rare earth elements（REE） have a wide range of applications from daily life to high-tech fields，so it is regarded as a strategic resource in many countries.In recent years，the United States and other countries generated dissatisfaction on China’s rare-earth policy because of their high dependence on chinese rare earth，and then China was sued to World Trade Organization（WTO）.In this paper，characters and reserves of global rare earths are introduced at first，then rare earths industry status of America are studied：its production has been ceased for a long time though reserve is abundant，rare earth elements supply is dependent on import and import is highly concentrated on one country，meanwhile，domestic supply chain is also incomplete，but its scientific research is leading the world. Its future possible policy options include：research and develop new technologies，authorize and fund USGS to assess REE resources，support and encourage exploration for REE，establish stockpile.Thus，the US rare earths self-sufficiency will get enhanced quickly，the World’s rare earth reserves and undiscovered resources will be sufficient to meet a variety of needs in the future.

Key words: rare earths, industry status, strategic resources, policy options