Carol J. Guthrie, a spokeswoman for Mr. Kirk, said exports of goods had "grown by leaps and bounds since January" and that the growth had been led by shipments to countries with which the United States has free-trade agreements, or F.T.A.'s.
"But the important point," the official said, "is that the Chinese profess to have a policy of nonproliferation, they insist they don't export missile technology and yet we still keep seeing evidence of shipments to countries that are also seeking weapons of mass destruction".
"But we are also concerned about shipments to countries where there are human rights abuses".
Exports to the continental United States stand at 14%, and the residual 1% is shipment to foreign countries.
It is the export orders that are especially weak now, particularly for shipments to other countries that use the euro, as weakness in those countries spreads to Germany.
Last year, the Dutch returned 80 illegal shipments to their countries of origin, their usual policy.
Congress passed a resolution permitting President Franklin Roosevelt to impose an embargo on arms shipments to both countries, and he did.
"With stricter export mechanism gradually in place, outbound shipments to other countries might understandably begin to feel the effect," Mr. Wang said in an e-mail.
The Basel Convention, which governs the waste trade, wants to ban shipments to poor countries Source: Reuters Guiyu's thriving e-waste industry is hard on the environment too.
All 32 of the authorized rare earth exporters in China have refused to increase their shipments to other countries during the unannounced ban on shipments to Japan, making it difficult for Japanese traders to obtain supplies indirectly.
