Importing Rare Earths and Magnets from China: Export Licence, End-User Certificate and Tariffs

Two blocks of rules coexist. The first is in force with no end date: Announcement 18/2025 of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) and Customs, dated 4 April 2025, subjects the export of samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium and yttrium and their magnets to a licence. Controls also remain on gallium and germanium (since 1 August 2023), graphite (since 1 December 2023) and antimony (since 15 September 2024).

The second is on hold. On 9 October 2025 MOFCOM published 6 announcements: 55 (superhard materials), 56 (rare earth equipment), 57 (holmium, erbium, thulium, europium and ytterbium), 58 (lithium batteries and artificial graphite anodes), 61 (rare earth products manufactured outside China) and 62 (technologies). Announcement 70/2025 suspended them on 7 November 2025 until 10 November 2026.

The suspension did not touch Announcement 18/2025, and confusing this is the most frequent mistake. As of 15 October 2026, MOFCOM has not published any extension, so when the suspension ends the 6 announcements may regain their effect. Plan orders shipping around that date under both scenarios and check the official MOFCOM website before committing to deliveries.

Announcement 18/2025 controls samarium-cobalt (SmCo) magnets and neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnets containing terbium or dysprosium, covering both the magnet and magnetic powder. NdFeB magnets without terbium or dysprosium are not listed. What decides is the chemical composition of the specific grade, not the trade name: ask your supplier for it. If Announcement 57/2025 is reactivated, magnets containing holmium would also be included.

Products with magnets already assembled (motors, electric bicycles, appliances) do not appear in Announcement 18/2025, which only cites metals, alloys, targets, oxides, compounds and magnet material. The Chinese Dual-Use Regulation (Decree 792, art. 49) allows extending control to products manufactured outside China with Chinese content, but a specific measure is required, and the only one issued, Announcement 61/2025, is suspended: it required a licence when the Chinese rare earths in its annex accounted for 0.1% or more of the product's value.

Furthermore, the tariff heading does not tell you if something is controlled: China uses its own control codes (1C902 to 1C908 in Announcement 18/2025) and describes the product by its composition.

The Chinese exporter always applies for the licence. You do not submit anything to MOFCOM, but without your documents the application does not move forward: art. 16 of Regulation 792 requires a copy of the contract or order, the technical description or a test report, and the end-user and end-use certificate. The announcements for gallium, germanium and antimony also require an introduction profile of the importer and the end user.

That certificate is issued by the end user themselves, not the Spanish Administration (art. 24): your company if you manufacture, or your client if you resell. In it, they undertake not to change the end use or transfer the product to third parties without permission from MOFCOM. A vague end use or quantities that do not match the business activity trigger verifications, and verifications stop the clock.

Managora prepares the buyer's file for you (certificate, letter of undertakings, and technical and use description) for your company to sign and hand over to your supplier. Your supplier submits it to MOFCOM. You can see the updated fee on the product page for the end-user certificate for China.

MOFCOM decides within 45 working days from admitting the application, not from when your supplier sends it (art. 17). The timeframe is suspended during verifications, expert consultations or inspections, and does not apply if the State Council or the Central Military Commission makes the decision. If Chinese customs doubt what is declared, they also hold the goods. Nobody can guarantee you a date.

An individual licence covers 1 export to a single end user and is valid for a maximum of 1 year. A general licence allows multiple exports and is valid for up to 3 years, but can only be requested by an exporter with a well-functioning internal compliance system, an export track record, and stable channels and end users (arts. 15 and 16). Ask your supplier which one they work with.

Cooperate promptly with verifications: if the importer or end user fails to do so, MOFCOM may place them on the watch list (art. 26) and your supplier will no longer be able to sell to you under a general licence. Anyone who breaches end-use requirements may end up on the control list (art. 28), facing prohibition, restriction or suspension of operations.

Art. 24 of Regulation 792 allows MOFCOM to additionally require a document issued or certified by a public body in the end user's country. In Spain this is the Certificado Internacional de Importación (CII, International Import Certificate) for dual-use items, issued by the Secretaría de Estado de Comercio (State Secretariat for Trade) using the template in annex VI.17 of RD 679/2014 (Spanish Royal Decree on foreign trade control of defence and dual-use material), including for goods not subject to control in Spain (art. 31.2).

The form, signed electronically by the importing company, is submitted on the Sede Electrónica de la Administración General del Estado (General State Administration e-Office) or that of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business, and the receipt is emailed to the JIMDDU (Interministerial Board for Defence and Dual-Use Material). It is valid for 6 months and cannot be transferred (art. 31.4): request it once the order is closed. There is no published official timeframe for issuing it, so leave margin.

Do not confuse it with the Certificado de Último Destino (End-Destination Certificate) from the Ministry of Defence, which is only for defence material. Managora prepares the CII form with the transaction details for your company to sign; you can see the updated fee on the International Import Certificate page.

The certificate undertaking follows you after the purchase: without permission from MOFCOM you cannot change the use or transfer the product. If you distribute, declare the resale chain from the beginning, providing the certificate from the client who actually uses the material.

In 2026 MOFCOM placed 21 EU entities on its control list (announcements 20/2026 and 30/2026), including Lafert S.p.A., Rheinmetall AG and TATRA TRUCKS, prohibiting third parties from transferring Chinese-origin dual-use products to them. Before reselling, check your client against those announcements: there is no official consolidated database. Since 1 July 2026 there is also a whistleblowing channel (Announcement 26/2026) covering diverting goods through third countries and knowingly providing transport, customs clearance or financing services to an infringing exporter.

Leaving Spain has its own rules. If the product is listed in annex I of Regulation (EU) 2021/821, it requires a dual-use licence and, prior to that, registration in the REOCE (Special Registry of Foreign Trade Operators, taking 60 working days; licences take 6 months with negative administrative silence, meaning it is deemed refused if unanswered). Even if not listed, you need authorisation if the authority notifies you of a potential military use in a country under an arms embargo (art. 4). Exporting dual-use items without authorisation is a smuggling offence from €50,000. We can submit the REOCE registration and the licence on your behalf with your power of attorney.

Permanent metal magnets fall under subheading 8505 11, which TARIC divides into 15 codes of 10 digits; rare earth metals are found under 2805 30 and their compounds under 2846. The duty rate, suspensions and origin-based measures depend on the exact code and date: check TARIC for your clearance date and distrust percentages circulating without a code, because sources do not match.

If you doubt between 2 codes, request a Binding Tariff Information ruling, known as Información Arancelaria Vinculante (IAV, procedure DD02 of the AEAT, the Spanish Tax Agency): 30 days to accept it and 120 to resolve, extendable; no tasa (official fee), except for sample analyses; valid for 3 years and only for its holder. Managora submits it on your behalf with your power of attorney, because it is not a customs declaration.

Upon arrival, goods are declared using the H1 declaration (the classic DUA closed on 14 October 2025). The customs declaration is submitted by your company or a registered customs representative; we prepare the classification, the calculation of duties and VAT, and the supporting documentation for you. The EORI number is assigned automatically by the AEAT (ES plus your NIF, Spanish tax ID) if your NIF does not start with N, M, X or Y; if it does, it must be requested (procedure DC13).

Import VAT is assessed by customs. If your company files VAT monthly, you can defer it to modelo 303 (the periodic VAT return) by opting in via modelo 036 (the census declaration form) from 1 to 30 November 2026, taking effect on 1 January 2027. Furthermore, origin for the EU is that of the last substantial transformation (art. 60.2 of the Union Customs Code): a magnet made outside China using Chinese raw material may not be Chinese for tariff purposes, but that does not change what China requires.

If the contract is governed by Spanish law, art. 1105 of the Código Civil (Spanish Civil Code) exempts liability for unforeseeable or unavoidable events unless the contract states otherwise. It is better that it states it explicitly: the licence as a condition for delivery, with a deadline to terminate without penalty; the supplier's obligation to apply diligently and report every official request; what happens if it is refused or covers a smaller quantity; a force majeure clause naming export controls and their potential reactivation after 10 November 2026; and undertakings on end use and non-resale to listed entities. Managora drafts these clauses for your purchase and resale contracts; you can see the updated fee on the product page.

Diversifying also counts. On 18 November 2025, the EU opened registration for the Raw Materials Mechanism for joint purchasing, with a 1st round scheduled for March 2026 focusing on rare earths, batteries and defence, and announced a European Critical Raw Materials Centre for joint purchasing and stockpiling.

The European Critical Raw Materials Act (Regulation 2024/1252) treats rare earths for magnets as strategic raw materials. Large companies that use strategic raw materials to manufacture batteries, traction motors, renewable energy equipment and other technologies under art. 24, and that are identified by the State (more than 500 employees on average and more than 150 million euros in worldwide net turnover), must assess their supply chain risk at least every 3 years; this assessment is not submitted to any Administration: the company may present the report to its board of directors, and the State may require it to do so.