BEIJING, Nov 1 (Reuters) - China's rare earth export quotas for 2011 will not be cut "significantly" from recent levels, but the government will continue enforcing such quotas, a Commerce Ministry official said Monday.
A Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce, Chen Jian, made the comments at a news conference following weeks of international concern about whether China will use its hold on 97 percent of global rare earths production to sharply curtail exports of the metals, which are used for many high-tech applications.
"I don't think there will be a big cut in export quotas," Chen said, when asked whether China would slash rare earth exports next year.
(Reporting by Zhou Xin; Writing by Chris Buckley; Editing by Ken Wills)