trade policy brief
Trade in raw materials
February 2019
No country is self-sufficient in key raw materials. How revenue from the mining sector is spent is as important as how much is collected. Export restrictions are not the best way to support or create a downstream processing industry.
What’s the issue? Almost all consumer goods today contain raw materials from the mining sector; for example, a mobile phone can contain 50 different minerals and metals. While no country is self-sufficient in these materials, mineral resources represent a vast stock of wealth in some countries where exports of such products dwarf all other exports. But the mining sector often provides little employment in the countries where extraction occurs. Some countries have implemented export restrictions to try to increase
the value added of their natural resources and create jobs in processing industries. The rationale is that restricting exports of minerals will help to foster a downstream processing industry through lower input prices, thereby creating more jobs domestically. Other countries use such restrictions to generate revenue, control illegal exports or the export of illegally mined products, enhance environmental protection, or offset exchange rate impacts caused by the export of few commodities. These are all legitimate policy goals to be determined in each country by its citizens’ preferences.
Most restricting measure on exports of minerals and metals, 2014
No restrictions Non-automatic licensing other export measures Export tax Export quota Export prohibition
Source: OECD Inventory of Export Restrictions on Industrial Raw Materials
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