The US and the Netherlands are expected to hold a new round of talks this month on restricting China’s access to advanced chip technologies, during which Washington could increase pressure on its ally to block ASML Holding NV from supplying the Asian nation.
US National Security Council Senior Director for Technology Tarun Chhabra and US Undersecretary of Commerce for Industry and Security Alan Estevez are scheduled to travel to the Netherlands for the discussions, people familiar with the plans said on the condition of anonymity.
The parties are to discuss expanding export controls, as the US has been pressuring the Dutch government to halt Veldhoven-based ASML’s sales of a wider range of its advanced chip production machines to China, although an agreement is not expected to come out of the talks, the people said.
Photo: Reuters
The trip is part of ongoing bilateral consultations, and the two sides are expected to talk about other issues in the US-Dutch tech partnership, one of the people said.
The US National Security Council, the US Department of Commerce and the Dutch Ministry for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation all declined to comment.
ASML does not distribute its cutting-edge extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography systems in China, but Washington has been pushing for that prohibition to extend to more mature tech as well.
The development highlights the ongoing campaign of the administration of US President Joe Biden to convince allies to align with its export control policy, and to keep the latest chip technologies out of the reach of the Chinese military.
ASML is a linchpin of the US$550 billion global chip industry, a maker of one-of-a-kind machines without which most advanced semiconductors cannot be made. Washington needs the company on board to exert maximum pressure on China.
The global chip-equipment market is dominated by three US suppliers — Applied Materials Inc, Lam Research Corp and KLA Corp — alongside ASML and Japan’s Tokyo Electron Ltd.
All are subject to a thicket of regulations that limit what they can sell to Chinese customers, although non-US firms have more latitude in doing business with China than their US peers. That gap has grown after Washington rolled out new rules on Oct. 7 further restricting the ability of US equipment suppliers to do business in the country.
ASML has been unable to get approval from the Dutch government to sell its most advanced EUV machines to China, but so far it can continue to sell its other products to Chinese customers and sees a smaller impact than its US peers from the new US export controls.
US officials have said that the latest round of trade restrictions are expected to lose effectiveness over time if allies do not join the campaign.
They have also been pushing for ASML to halt the sale of immersion lithography machines, its second-most advanced product after EUV, to China, Bloomberg News reported earlier this year.
Estevez said last week that he expects a deal with global allies to limit shipments of chip-production equipment to China in the near term.
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