All are scheduled to join From Japan and the Netherlands to efforts led by US President Joe Biden’s administration to restrict exports of semiconductor manufacturing equipment to China.
According to Bloomberg, the two countries will conclude their talks in this regard today, Friday, at a time when the Netherlands has already begun preparing to place restrictions on the Dutch giant ASML from selling equipment that makes advanced chips to China.
For its part, Japan will impose similar restrictions on Nikon Corp., knowing that a quarter of the company’s sales are currently going to China.
The Netherlands and Japan, the world’s largest suppliers of semiconductor-making machinery outside the United States, both for equipment and know-how to make advanced chips, but Washington has not yet fully secured the assurances of these allies.
Washington has some leverage over the Netherlands, where ASML uses American-made components.
And since early October, American officials have threatened that if allies do not comply with the new export control measures, they can ban the sale of foreign equipment containing even the smallest amount of American technology to China.
