The Government of the Netherlands is lobbying for a new United States chip-restriction bill to prevent further expansion of export controls. The debate focused on the fact that the bill would not only target Chinese chip manufacturers, but could also cut off their access to some Western semiconductor equipment, with the Dutch chip giant ASML bearing the brunt.
Dutch officials went to America to express their opposition.
Dutch Minister of Trade Sjoerd Sjoerdsma travelled to Washington this week to meet with Howard Lutnick, United States Minister of Commerce, and members of Parliament against the so-called MATCH Act. The bill proposes to prohibit Chinese chip manufacturers from acquiring Western semiconductor equipment.
Following the meeting, Sjoerdsma stated that he had travelled to the United States to focus on the concerns of the Netherlands in Parliament because the subject matter had a great impact on Dutch interests.
ASML is under greater pressure on Chinese sales.
ASML, based in the Netherlands, is the most marketable company in Europe and the only enterprise in the world that can produce advanced optical carving machines for use in the manufacture of front-line AI chips.
The Chinese market accounts for about 19 per cent of the ASML net system sales. If MATCH Act advances, the restrictions will go beyond the existing measures. In addition to the long-term ban on the export of state-of-the-art EUV optical carving equipment abroad, the bill will also include some deep UV impregnated optical carving machines.
The CEO of ASML, Christopher Fouquet, had previously indicated that China still had access to the earlier generation of deep UV equipment. Such equipment began to be shipped approximately 10 years ago, and the new bill proposes to include this part of the equipment in the ban.
The bill is still pending final vote.
MATCH Act was introduced in April this year and has not yet been voted in full in the United States House of Representatives or Senate. It was reported that the bill, if adopted, might need to be incorporated into a larger legislative programme.
This means that the restrictions are still in the legislative advancement stage in the short term, but the continued tightening of United States export controls on the Chinese chip has begun to trigger a more direct policy rebound on the European side.