Dec. 23 (UPI) — The United States on Monday launched an investigation into China’s use of “extensive anti-competitive and out-of-market means” in its bid to dominate the global market for “workhorse” classic semiconductors. and the effect one of the measures on the US economy.
“Today, the Biden-Harris Administration is taking additional action to protect American workers and businesses from the People’s Republic of China’s unfair trade practices in the semiconductor sector and support a healthy domestic industry for foundational semiconductors,” it said.
He highlighted how “Made in China 2025” has set numerical targets for China’s domestic semiconductor capacity and production, saying this reflects China’s dominance in the semiconductor sector.
The investigation will also initially assess the impact on U.S. commerce of tactics employed by China in the production of silicon carbide substrates, or other wafers used as inputs into semiconductor fabrication.
“This survey underscores the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment to improving the status of Americans and businesses, expanding the resilience of critical origin chains, and supporting the unprecedented investments being made in this industry,” USTR Ambassador Katherine Tai said in a press release.
The USTR said China uses a wide variety of anti-competitive and non-market means, adding that “the Chinese Communist Party’s guidance, directives and controls within state-owned and private enterprises, the activities of state-owned enterprises or controlled by the state, markets restrictions and opaque activities. “Regulatory personal tastes and discrimination.
Other tactics include wage suppression practices, large state subsidies (adding allocated budget) and forced generational transfers, adding state-directed cyberattacks and intellectual asset theft.
“Evidence indicates that in just six years, China has virtually doubled its global share of basic logic semiconductor production capacity. Based on the new manufacturing plants announced, China’s share is expected to reach roughly a share of global capacity up to 2029,” the USTR said. warned.
He added that projections showed that China would also lead the production capacity of other types of classic semiconductors, such as power chips, and that this emerging dominance was already having a chilling effect, discouraging investments from the sector’s original players who joined to the rules of the market. walk.
The investigation will be informed by a two-month public consultation, scheduled to open for comments on Jan. 6, culminating in a two-day hearing on March 11-12, the USTR office said, noting that it had also requested consultations with China on the issue in line with U.S. trade law.
Monday’s announcement is of a back-and-forth escalation in a row between the United States and China over the sector and generation in general, with AI a icular point of contention.
The Biden administration has a series of increasingly strict controls on semiconductor generation exports for national security reasons.