Trump to Push Hard on ASML Export Controls, Dutch Premier Says

(Bloomberg) -- The Netherlands expects President Donald Trump to keep pressing to restrict ASML Holding NV’s exports of chip-making machines to China, according to Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof.

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“The Biden administration pushed very hard and I expect the Trump administration pushing the same way,” Schoof said in an interview with Bloomberg in Davos on Wednesday. With regard to the China policy, the US and the Netherlands “are aligned,” the prime minister said.

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The Netherlands has been limiting ASML’s sales to China under pressure from the US, which wants to limit the development of the Asian nation’s chip sector, in the name of national security.

“When it comes to ASML, we currently have discussions on a weekly basis,” Schoof said. Still, “I think it’s important that we decide on our own on what we will do” with the export controls policy, he said. ASML is very important for the Dutch economy and “we want to make sure that position” doesn’t change, Schoof said.

ASML is world’s only producer of cutting-edge lithography machines needed to produce high-end chips used in everything from electric vehicles to military gear. The company has never been able to sell its most-advanced extreme ultraviolet lithography machines to China because of US-led export restrictions.

Last year, the Dutch government also restricted immersion deep ultraviolet lithography systems to China after pressure from the Biden administration. DUV is the next most sophisticated chip-making equipment after EUV machines.

China accounted for €2.79 billion ($2.9 billion) of ASML’s sales in the third quarter, nearly half of its total. The company expects China sales to account for about 20% of total revenue this year. Chief Executive Officer Christophe Fouquet echoed Schoof in an interview with Bloomberg in October, predicting that the US pressure on ASML to further restrict sales of semiconductor technology to Beijing will likely grow.

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Schoof is set to meet with China’s Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang in the Netherlands on Thursday. In response to a question on whether he expects China to retaliate against the Netherlands’ export controls, Schoof said “retaliation is not on the agenda, we meet as good friends.”

“We will probably talk about export controls and we will listen to each other very carefully,” he said. “We have good trade relationship with China but between good friends you can always have disputes on particular issues.”

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