(Yicai Global) July 18 -- The Semiconductor Industry Association of the United States has asked the government not to introduce any other restrictive policy on China to avoid damages to its semiconductor industry.

“We call on both governments to ease tensions and seek solutions through dialogue, not further escalation,” the SIA said in a statement yesterday. “And we urge the administration to refrain from further restrictions until it engages more extensively with industry and experts to assess the impact of current and potential restrictions to determine whether they are narrow and clearly defined, consistently applied, and fully coordinated with allies.”

“Recognizing that strong economic and national security require a strong US semiconductor industry, leaders in Washington took bold and historic action last year to enact the ‘Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors and Science Act’ to strengthen our industry’s global competitiveness and de-risk supply chains,” the SIA noted. “Allowing the industry to have continued access to the China market, the world’s largest commercial market for commodity semiconductors, is important to avoid undermining the positive impact of this effort.

“Repeated steps to impose overly broad, ambiguous, and at times unilateral restrictions risk diminishing the US semiconductor industry’s competitiveness, disrupting supply chains, causing significant market uncertainty, and prompting continued escalatory retaliation by China,” the SIA pointed out.

Chief executives at US chip giants Intel, Qualcomm, and Nvidia will meet with US government officials in Washington next week to lobby against extending restrictions on chip exports to China, Bloomberg reported on July 14, citing sources.

These firms believe cutting connections with China will hurt their investment ability in advancing technologies, eventually weakening the US’ leadership position, the report noted.

Last October, the US enforced new rules to restrict China from accessing advanced computing chips, developing and maintaining supercomputers, and making advanced semiconductors. Companies using US-made tools and components were also prohibited from selling high-performance chips to China. 

Editor: Futura Costaglione