Commerce and trade ministers from the US, Japan and South Korea on Wednesday vowed to cooperate on strategic issues, including artificial intelligence (AI) safety, export controls, clean energy and semiconductor supply chains.
“We’re doubling down our efforts to work together,” US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said at a meeting in Washington.
“As we three are leading economies in manufacturing, services, technology and innovation, and we have to work together to benefit not just our countries, but the safety and security of the world,” Raimondo said.
Photo:EPA-EFE
She was joined at the inaugural trilateral meeting by Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Ken Saito and South Korean Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Ahn Duk-geun. The meetings were decided last year by the countries’ leaders at an August summit at Camp David.
The ministers said in a statement after the meeting that they would “focus our joint efforts on a set of strategic areas designed to enhance the security and prosperity of our people and the Indo-Pacific region. We aim to prioritize cooperation to strengthen the resilience of supply chains in key sectors, including semiconductors and batteries,” as well as AI safety, critical minerals, cybersecurity and technical standard setting.
Saito said the three “agreed to realize a strong and reliable supply chain for strategic materials by working together with like-minded countries, including Japan, the United States and South Korea, and designing a market where factors other than price are fairly evaluated.”
Last month, US President Joe Biden vowed to sharply increase tariffs on critical minerals from China, as Washington vowed to reduce China’s dominance of critical mineral supply chains.
In March, a Department of Commerce official said the US was asking allies to stop domestic companies from servicing certain chipmaking tools for Chinese customers, a key part of the US’ push to hobble China’s chipmaking capabilities.
“We expect the South Korea-US-Japan industry ministers’ meeting to serve as an institutional basis for deepening and developing industrial cooperation among the three countries and jointly responding to global risks,” Ahn said.
Taiwan’s technology protection rules prohibits Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) from producing 2-nanometer chips abroad, so the company must keep its most cutting-edge technology at home, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks in response to concerns that TSMC might be forced to produce advanced 2-nanometer chips at its fabs in Arizona ahead of schedule after former US president Donald Trump was re-elected as the next US president on Tuesday. “Since Taiwan has related regulations to protect its own technologies, TSMC cannot produce 2-nanometer chips overseas currently,” Kuo said at a meeting of the legislature’s
GEOPOLITICAL ISSUES? The economics ministry said that political factors should not affect supply chains linking global satellite firms and Taiwanese manufacturers Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) asked Taiwanese suppliers to transfer manufacturing out of Taiwan, leading to some relocating portions of their supply chain, according to sources employed by and close to the equipment makers and corporate documents. A source at a company that is one of the numerous subcontractors that provide components for SpaceX’s Starlink satellite Internet products said that SpaceX asked their manufacturers to produce outside of Taiwan because of geopolitical risks, pushing at least one to move production to Vietnam. A second source who collaborates with Taiwanese satellite component makers in the nation said that suppliers were directly
Top Taiwanese officials yesterday moved to ease concern about the potential fallout of Donald Trump’s return to the White House, making a case that the technology restrictions promised by the former US president against China would outweigh the risks to the island. The prospect of Trump’s victory in this week’s election is a worry for Taipei given the Republican nominee in the past cast doubt over the US commitment to defend it from Beijing. But other policies championed by Trump toward China hold some appeal for Taiwan. National Development Council Minister Paul Liu (劉鏡清) described the proposed technology curbs as potentially having
TALENT FACTOR: The nation’s chip sector would be difficult to replace, but to maintain that advantage, Taiwan must retain skilled workers, an academic said A group of experts on Sunday called on Taiwan to strive to maintain its world-leading position in the semiconductor industry, with a US-China chip dispute expected to continue regardless of who becomes the next US president. Tamkang University Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies director Li Da-jung (李大中) said at a Taipei seminar on global semiconductor security that the relationship between the two superpowers would remain confrontational. There appears to be “no turning back” in US-China relations, as US presidential candidates US Vice President Kamala Harris and former US president Donald Trump are both expected to continue Washington’s hawkish stance