By David Shepardson and Stephen Nellis
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Senior U.S. chip company executives are holding meetings with Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, National Economic Council director Lael Brainard, and National Security Council director Jake Sullivan on Monday to discuss China policy, a source told Reuters.
On Friday, Reuters reported the chief executives of Intel Corp and Qualcomm Inc were planning to visit Washington this week, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The source told Reuters the chip companies, including Nvidia Corp, are having separate meetings with Biden adminsitration officials Monday.
The Commerce Department declined to comment on any potential meetings. The White House also declined to comment.
Earlier on Monday, the U.S.-based Semiconductor Industry Association trade group called on the Biden administration to “refrain from further restrictions” on chip sales to China.
The Biden administration is considering updating a sweeping set of rules imposed in October to hobble China’s chip industry and a new executive order restricting some outbound investment.
China recently moved to restrict exports of raw materials such as gallium and germanium that are used in making chips.
Further rule-tightening by U.S. officials risks “disrupting supply chains, causing significant market uncertainty, and prompting continued escalatory retaliation by China,” the industry group said.
The group said it wants “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.”
Raimondo is overseeing a $39 billion semiconductor manufacturing subsidy program approved by Congress last year. The law also created a 25% investment tax credit for building chip plants, estimated to be worth $24 billion.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Susan Heavey)
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