China Rare Earth Export Controls 2026: The 0.1% Rule Returns November 10

China rare earth export controls 2026 turn on MOFCOM Notice 61, which China’s Ministry of Commerce issued on 9 October 2025 to extend its rare earth controls to certain goods made outside China. Its structure invites comparison with the US Foreign Direct Product Rule, although the two are separate regimes with different legal tests. The notice is suspended today, and the date it could take effect has become a moving target.

The short version. MOFCOM Notice 61 would require a Chinese export licence for listed foreign-made magnets, targets and magnet-bearing parts when Chinese-origin rare earths make up 0.1% or more of the item’s value. The whole notice is suspended under Announcement 70 until 10 November 2026. MOFCOM said on 28 September 2026 that the wider China-US arrangement now runs to 10 January 2027, but no numbered notice has moved the legal date. The April 2025 controls on items linked to seven rare earth elements were never suspended. Only listed items that meet the value threshold are caught.

Carra Globe provides importer of record, exporter of record, delivered duty paid and freight forwarding services, so we have a commercial interest in your answer. What follows is written to be usable whether or not you ever speak to us.

Notice 61 introduced a 0.1% de minimis rule, and it has three conditions that must all be met. The item must be on the notice’s list, which covers specified samarium-cobalt magnets, neodymium magnets containing terbium or dysprosium, parts, components and modules containing those magnet materials, and specified rare earth sputtering targets. It must contain specified rare earths originally produced in China. The value of that content must be at least 0.1% of the value of the item being exported. Where all three apply, the foreign exporter would need a MOFCOM licence before shipping it to another country.

An NVIDIA H200 server assembled in Taiwan has a CIF value of several hundred thousand dollars. Its cooling fan magnets are likely to be worth far less than 0.1% of that value, but that is an estimate rather than a ruling, and it does not settle whether the server is a listed item in the first place. A magnet, a magnet-bearing fan or motor module, or a sputtering target sold as a separate item is far more likely to meet the threshold. The requirement has to be assessed for each relevant item and each export or transfer, using a bill of materials rather than assumptions.

On 7 November 2025, MOFCOM suspended Notice 61 until 10 November 2026 as part of a temporary de-escalation agreement. On 28 September 2026, MOFCOM said China and the US had agreed to extend that wider arrangement to 10 January 2027, without naming rare earths or amending the suspension in a numbered notice. That leaves importers of AI hardware, advanced electronics and industrial equipment with two dates to plan against, the legal one and the political one.

This guide covers what Notice 61 and the related controls actually require. It sets out which products are affected, what the two dates mean, and the four steps every importer should take before the suspension ends.

In plain language: what MOFCOM Notice 61 does

Before Notice 61, China controlled the export of rare earth elements themselves. If a Chinese company wanted to export terbium or dysprosium, it needed an export licence. That is the model every country uses for controlled materials.

MOFCOM Notice 61 broke this model by applying Chinese export control jurisdiction extraterritorially. Its approach resembles the US Foreign Direct Product Rule, though the legal tests differ. For the first time, China asserted jurisdiction over products manufactured entirely outside its borders, by non-Chinese companies, in non-Chinese facilities, being traded between two non-Chinese countries, because those products contain a trace amount of a material originally produced in China.

The difference is in what each rule reaches. The US rule is aimed largely at advanced semiconductor technology. China’s version applies to rare earth content in magnets and sputtering targets, and in the many electronic parts and assemblies that contain them.

Notice 61 brings three categories of goods under control. They are summarised below from the English translation by the Georgetown University Center for Security and Emerging Technology, checked against the Chinese text published by MOFCOM.

• Category 1, the 0.1% rule. Permanent magnet materials and sputtering targets, plus parts, components and assemblies containing them, that are manufactured outside China and contain Chinese-origin rare earth elements at 0.1% or more of the product’s value.
• Category 2, the technology rule. Listed items made outside China with Chinese-origin rare earths using Chinese rare earth technologies, including mining, smelting, separation, metal smelting, magnetic material manufacturing or rare earth recycling technology.
• Category 3, Chinese-origin items. Listed rare earth items originally produced in China, when foreign companies export them onward to another country.

Categories 1 and 2 are the extraterritorial provisions. They are the reason Notice 61 is unprecedented. All three categories sit inside the suspended notice, so none of them applies today, and Categories 1 and 2 are the ones that matter most to importers if the suspension ends.

China rare earth export controls 2026: the current status and what the suspension dates mean

Understanding the current status requires separating three distinct layers, each at a different stage.

• April 2025 controls, in force now. Export licences are required for specified items linked to seven medium and heavy rare earths, namely samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium and yttrium, under MOFCOM and General Administration of Customs (GAC) Announcement 18 of 2025. The list covers listed metals, alloys, targets, oxides, compounds and mixtures, plus samarium-cobalt magnets and NdFeB magnets containing terbium or dysprosium. These controls were never suspended, so Chinese exporters of those items need MOFCOM approval.
• October 2025 package, suspended. MOFCOM and GAC Announcements 55 to 58 and MOFCOM Announcements 61 and 62, covering the 0.1% extraterritorial rule, the controls on rare earth technologies and five additional elements (holmium, erbium, thulium, europium and ytterbium), were suspended by Announcement 70 of 2025 on 7 November 2025. The legal text ends the suspension on 10 November 2026.
• The January 2027 extension, announced but not yet in a numbered notice. On 28 September 2026, MOFCOM said China and the US had agreed to extend the Kuala Lumpur joint arrangement, which paused certain tariff and non-tariff measures, to 10 January 2027. The statement does not mention rare earths, and as at 14 October 2026 MOFCOM’s announcement list shows no notice amending Announcement 70.

Two dates, one exposure. The published suspension notice ends on 10 November 2026, while MOFCOM’s 28 September statement extends the wider China-US arrangement to 10 January 2027. Neither document on its own settles how Notice 61 stands after 10 November, so do not assume it resumes automatically on that date or has been extended automatically to January. Ask your magnet and component suppliers in writing which date they are planning to, but treat MOFCOM’s latest official notice as the deciding source.

Neither date is an abstract future risk for any business exposed to these controls. If the suspension ends without a further extension, the full extraterritorial controls could take effect on every product in Categories 1 and 2 at once. Global supply chains have not materially reduced their dependence on Chinese-origin rare earth materials since the suspension began.

The supply picture explains why a lapse would bite quickly. The IEA estimates that announced magnet capacity outside China would meet well below 20% of projected 2035 needs. Reimposed controls would likely disrupt imports of AI hardware, automotive electronics and EV components, medical devices and industrial equipment.

Which products are affected by the 0.1% rule

The practical scope of the Category 1 provision is broad within its listed items. The 0.1% threshold applies to the value of Chinese-origin rare earth content relative to the total product value. For high-value products like enterprise servers and GPU infrastructure, the rare earth content as a percentage of total value is typically well below 0.1%, although that needs checking against a bill of materials. For lower-value listed items such as magnets and magnet-bearing assemblies, the threshold is more readily met.

These are the products where Notice 61 creates the clearest compliance exposure.

• NdFeB permanent magnets. Neodymium-iron-boron magnets containing terbium or dysprosium sit at the centre of Notice 61’s list, alongside samarium-cobalt magnets. Many high-performance magnets use these heavy rare earths, and they sit inside hard disk drives, server cooling fans, electric motors in data centre infrastructure, robotic components and precision industrial equipment. According to the IEA, China produced 94% of the world’s sintered permanent magnets in 2024, and announced capacity elsewhere falls well short of projected need.
• Sputtering targets for semiconductor manufacturing. Yttrium, gadolinium and other rare earth sputtering targets are consumables in semiconductor fabrication. Notice 61 creates a licence requirement for these targets when they are manufactured outside China with Chinese-origin content.
• Hard disk drives and storage components. Whether a drive, a magnet assembly or a loose magnet is the item caught depends on what is actually exported. Do not treat a drive as covered or exempt until the listed item and the value calculation are established.
• Display and lighting components. LED backlights and LCD panels can rely on phosphor compounds containing europium, terbium and yttrium. Phosphors are not on Notice 61’s list of magnets and targets, so the exposure runs through the element-level controls instead, with terbium and yttrium under the April 2025 rules and europium under the suspended October package.
• AI server cooling and power infrastructure. Data centre cooling systems and some power and cooling plant contain permanent magnet motors. The magnets in these systems may fall under Category 1 where the magnet or the module containing it is a listed item and its Chinese-origin dysprosium or terbium content meets the 0.1% value threshold.

What Notice 61 would require from every party in the chain

Notice 61 does not simply require a Chinese export licence at the point of export. Its licence duty falls on exporters, but its declaration paperwork reaches importers and end users. If Notice 61 takes effect, importers of potentially affected products should have the following in place.

Rare earth bill of materials audit

This is a document identifying every rare earth element in your product, its country of origin and the percentage of total product value it represents. It is the starting point for every Notice 61 compliance assessment. Without it you cannot determine whether your products are in scope, whether the 0.1% threshold is exceeded, or whether a Chinese export licence is required. For importers of AI hardware, start with permanent magnets in cooling systems and storage components.

Declaration of Compliance

Article 7 of Notice 61 sets out when a Declaration of Compliance must be provided. Chinese domestic exporters of listed items provide it to the foreign importer and end user, and designated foreign export operators provide it to the next recipient when they transfer or export controlled items. The Appendix 2 template asks for the item name, the controlled rare earth content as a percentage of value, and the recipient’s obligations on further export and transfer. Recipients may also request it from upstream, so ask for it as a condition of purchase at each supply chain handoff.

Holding the declaration does not end the matter. The template states that it does not remove the duty to carry out due diligence under Chinese export control law. Treat it as one piece of evidence alongside your own checks, not a substitute for them.

Export licence verification

For products crossing the 0.1% threshold, the designated foreign export operator must obtain a MOFCOM dual-use export licence before shipment. You cannot verify a Chinese licence directly as an importer, but the Declaration of Compliance from your upstream supplier is the practical evidence. If your supplier cannot produce it where it applies, you lack the main document showing the export was handled under Chinese law.

End-use restrictions

Notice 61 presumes denial of export licences for foreign military users and for entities on China’s export control lists, including subsidiaries where listed entities hold 50% or more. That subsidiary provision is comparable to, though not the same as, the US approach to 50%-owned affiliates. It also presumes denial for weapons of mass destruction, terrorist and military end uses, so screen in-scope goods against military use and listed entities before completing any transaction.

A separate clause sets case-by-case review for advanced chipmaking and AI. It covers items for research or production of 14 nanometre and smaller logic chips or memory chips of 256 layers or more, related production and test equipment and materials, and AI research with potential military uses. That clause sits inside Notice 61, so it is suspended along with the rest of the notice.

What this means for AI hardware importers specifically

The intersection of Notice 61 with AI hardware import compliance is direct and specific. Consider the supply chain of a typical NVIDIA H200 server deployment into an Indian or German data centre.

• The server is assembled by a contract manufacturer in Taiwan.
• The cooling fans in the server contain NdFeB permanent magnets with dysprosium sourced from a Chinese refiner.
• The hard disk drives in the storage array contain rare earth magnets from a Malaysian magnet manufacturer using Chinese-origin terbium.
• The power conversion units contain motor components with NdFeB magnets made with Chinese-origin dysprosium.

None of these components are themselves produced in China. The server is not manufactured in China, and the importer is not importing from China. But if Notice 61 takes effect, any of those components that is a listed item and meets the 0.1% threshold could need a MOFCOM licence for export, with a Declaration of Compliance passed on where Article 7 requires it.

The practical implication for AI hardware importers is not that servers become impossible to import. It is that the documentation chain required to import them legally becomes significantly more complex. For an Importer of Record filing a customs declaration for an H200 server deployment in India, Notice 61 is a supply-side issue. The licence duty sits with the exporter, so the practical effect on the import is whether upstream suppliers can ship on time with the documents they need.

Notice 61 is Chinese export control law, not a destination import rule. Destination customs apply their own import laws, so treat Notice 61 as a sourcing and documentation question to settle with suppliers before goods ship. For the wider picture, see our guides to AI GPU import compliance 2026, the Chip Security Act 2026, importing AI servers and GPU clusters and data centre server and GPU rollouts.

Four actions every importer must take before the suspension ends

1. Commission a rare earth bill of materials audit for every product category you import. Identify every rare earth element in your products, trace its origin, and calculate the share of product value that Chinese-origin rare earth content represents. Any listed product where that content exceeds or might exceed 0.1% of value is potentially in scope. For AI hardware, start with permanent magnets in cooling systems, motors and storage components. For industrial and robotics equipment, start with motor assemblies. For medical devices, start with imaging components and surgical equipment. Our global trade compliance team can review the supplier documentation behind it and flag gaps.
2. Engage your upstream supply chain on Declaration of Compliance documentation now. The declaration chain must start at the Chinese domestic exporter and flow through every transfer to reach you. If your supplier has not started building it, they may not have it ready for either date. Ask every tier-one supplier of in-scope components to confirm in writing their plan for Notice 61 compliance and which suspension end date they are working to, and check that against MOFCOM’s latest notice. Suppliers who cannot confirm this are a supply chain risk to address before the suspension ends, not after.
3. Map your supplier base for Chinese rare earth technology exposure under Category 2. Category 2 covers listed items made outside China with Chinese-origin rare earths using Chinese rare earth processing technologies. If your component suppliers use Chinese-origin smelting, separation or magnetic material manufacturing equipment or know-how, their products may fall under Category 2 even where Chinese-origin rare earth content sits below 0.1% by value. This is harder to identify than Category 1 and requires direct engagement with your tier-one and tier-two manufacturers about their production technology provenance.
4. Assess your IOR structure in each destination market for Notice 61 readiness. Supplier delays and missing paperwork land on the import. The importer of record named on the customs declaration takes on the import obligations set by the destination country’s law and the contract, which is the core of what an importer of record does. Those obligations are separate from the Chinese export duties Notice 61 places on exporters. Confirm that your importer of record in each market knows about Notice 61, has assessed it for the products imported on your behalf, and can collect supplier declarations where they apply.

Shipping servers, storage or cooling plant with magnet-bearing parts? Send the model list, the supplier chain and the destination, and we will tell you which lines may fall under Notice 61 and what documentation to collect before the suspension ends. Request a pre-shipment check.

How Carra Globe supports importers navigating Notice 61

Carra Globe acts as importer of record and exporter of record for businesses moving hardware that may fall under MOFCOM Notice 61. Our global trade compliance team reviews the supplier documentation behind each shipment and flags gaps before a delivery date is agreed.

Carra Globe works through importer-side registrations and local importing structures appropriate to the goods and destinations it accepts, its own in some markets and established local structures in others. Approvals falling outside the available structure are flagged before a delivery date is agreed.

Our delivered duty paid service can build the supplier documentation Notice 61 may call for into the landed cost and compliance package for affected product categories. Our freight forwarding service coordinates origin documentation from manufacturing origin through to final destination across 175+ countries. For destination-specific rules, see our pages for India, Germany, Singapore, the UAE, Japan and the UK.

Send us the model list, the supplier chain and the destination for your next shipment. Email info@carraglobe.com and we will come back on where Notice 61 may apply and what to collect from your suppliers.

Frequently asked questions about Notice 61

Are MOFCOM Notice 61 and China rare earth export controls 2026 currently in force?

No. Announcement 70 suspends Notice 61 until 10 November 2026, and MOFCOM says the wider arrangement runs to 10 January 2027. April 2025 controls on items linked to seven elements continue.

Which rare earth elements does China control?

Items linked to seven elements are licensed now, namely samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium and yttrium. Holmium, erbium, thulium, europium and ytterbium would be added if the suspended October 2025 package takes effect.

Do the controls apply to completed products like servers and GPU systems?

Not automatically either way. A complete server’s magnet value is likely far below 0.1%, but first establish whether the item exported is listed. Listed magnets, magnet-bearing parts and targets carry the clearest exposure.

What is the Notice 61 Declaration of Compliance?

A statement under Article 7 and Appendix 2 that exporters provide in specified cases, giving the item, its Chinese rare earth content as a share of value, and onward export obligations.

Will MOFCOM extend the suspension beyond November 10?

MOFCOM said on 28 September 2026 that the wider China-US arrangement now runs to 10 January 2027, but no numbered notice has amended Announcement 70 yet. Plan for both and watch MOFCOM.

How does Notice 61 interact with US BIS export controls on AI hardware?

They run in parallel. BIS governs which US-controlled hardware can be exported and to whom, while Notice 61 governs transfers of items with Chinese-origin rare earth content. Meeting one gives no cover under the other.

Adjacent ground: export controls across the data centre hardware stack, semiconductor supply chain disruption in 2026 and diversifying supply chains away from China.

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Sources and verification

Sources checked on 14 October 2026.

• The law: MOFCOM Announcement No. 61 of 2025, Chinese original, read with the Georgetown CSET English translation.
• Articles relied on: Article 1 (the three categories and the 0.1% threshold), Articles 2 and 3 (presumed denials), Article 4 (case-by-case review for advanced chips and AI), Article 7 and Appendix 2 (Declaration of Compliance), Article 8 (original start dates) and Appendix 1 (listed elements, magnets and targets).
• The suspension: MOFCOM and GAC Announcement No. 70 of 2025, suspending Announcements 55 to 58, 61 and 62 until 10 November 2026.
• The January 2027 extension: MOFCOM statement of 28 September 2026 on the eighth round of China-US consultations, item eight.
• April 2025 controls: MOFCOM and GAC Announcement No. 18 of 2025, listing the controlled metals, alloys, targets, magnets, oxides and compounds.
• Official lists: MOFCOM 2025 announcements and MOFCOM 2026 announcements, checked for any notice amending Announcement 70.
• Supply data: IEA, Rare Earth Elements, executive summary.
• Verification note: Every rule, date and figure above was checked at MOFCOM or the IEA. Where the political statement and the legal text differ, the article reports both.

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Disclaimer: This article is general information about China rare earth export controls as at 14 October 2026 and is not legal advice. Suspensions, dates and listed items may change, so check the current MOFCOM position and take advice on your specific goods before relying on it.