Division Emerges in the US as Several Companies to Be Added to Export Blacklist

Significant disagreements have arisen within the US administration regarding the inclusion of several Chinese chip manufacturers on the export blacklist. This was reported by the Financial Times (FT).

According to the publication, the White House plans to include Chinese companies in the blacklist, but some officials wish to postpone this step to avoid jeopardizing efforts to reach a long-term trade agreement with China. The US Department of Commerce has compiled a list of Chinese companies, including the chip manufacturer ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), which should be included in the “entity list,” as five experts familiar with the matter informed FT.

Among the mentioned companies are the subsidiaries of China’s leading chip manufacturer Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) and the largest memory chip producer Yangtze Memory Technologies.

Some officials from the Trump administration argue that imposing export controls on key Chinese groups could jeopardize bilateral negotiations, according to the report. The addition of chip manufacturers to the export blacklist is the United States' latest attempt to make it more difficult for China to acquire “advanced American chips and chip manufacturing technologies” that could be used for military purposes, the publication notes.

It should be noted that Sino-American trade negotiations took place on May 10-11 in Switzerland. As a result, China and the United States agreed to reduce the additional tariffs established in early April, starting from May 14, down to 10%.