Bloomberg reports agreement between the Netherlands and the US on export restrictions on chip machines | Economy

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Jan 27, 2023 at 9:04 PM

The Netherlands, the United States and Japan have reached an agreement on restrictions on the export of chip technology to China. The countries have agreed in Washington to restrict the sale of certain machines for the production of semiconductors to the Asian country, reports Bloomberg news agency based on insiders

The US government has long wanted to restrict the sale of high-quality chip technology to China to prevent the country from making increasingly sophisticated weapons with the very latest chips. In addition, the government of President Joe Biden is emphatically looking at the Netherlands, because chip machine maker ASML is located in Veldhoven. That company is a global leader in the development of machines for making chips. Japan also has an important company in the chip production chain with Nikon.

Under pressure from the US, the Netherlands has for years blocked the sale to China of ASML’s most modern machines, the so-called EUV machines. But the US also wants ‘older generation’ devices, the DUV machines, to stop going to Chinese companies.

A White House spokesman declined to comment directly on Bloomberg’s questions. The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not yet responded substantively.

Minister Liesje Schreinemacher (Foreign Trade) previously stated that the aim of the talks is to maintain Western technological leadership. The negotiating countries would also like to avoid becoming too dependent on China for chips. The US and the Netherlands also want to prevent advanced chips from ending up in weapons from countries such as China. But the Netherlands would not simply comply with all the demands of the Americans, she emphasized.

The cabinet is not very keen on disclosing the details of the agreement with the Americans and Japanese, Prime Minister Mark Rutte said after the cabinet meeting. “It is very much the question if something will come out of that, whether it will become very visible,” he said at his weekly press conference.

Image: ANP

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