Bloomberg: Netherlands, Japan to curb chip exports to China

The Netherlands and Japan are close to an agreement with the United States to limit exports of chip technology to China. Export restrictions from the Netherlands and Japan could end by the end of the month, according to sources told Bloomberg News. Both countries are major players when it comes to high-end chip equipment.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida have discussed the matter with US President Joe Biden. Rutte was at the White House on Tuesday when export restrictions were discussed. The US government took unilateral steps in October to restrict exports of highly advanced semiconductors and semiconductor technology to China. It should no longer be supplied to China by US companies. Americans are not allowed to participate.

The Netherlands is one of the world’s most important suppliers of machinery used in the production of chips. But the Americans want to reduce the export of chip machines from ASML to China. This concerns not only ASML’s most modern EUV machines, whose exports to China have already been suspended, but also slightly older machines manufactured with DUV technology. Japan has important chip companies such as Tokyo Electron and Renesas.

Rutte told Bloomberg at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday that he hoped a deal would be reached. On Tuesday, he announced that negotiations on chip exports to China could already be “ended in a good way.”