Export controls may not stop all illegal shipments, but that doesn’t mean the U.S. and others should not work to improve cooperation and coordination, experts agreed during a June 27 Brookings Institution panel.

GlobalWafers plans to build a new semiconductor factory in Texas, with construction starting later this year, the Taiwan-based company said June 27. It expects the 3.2 million square-foot factory, the largest of its kind in the U.S., to eventually produce 1.2 million wafers per month in what will be the first new such facility built in the U.S. in over two decades.

As senators who support subsidies to build semiconductor chips in the U.S. continue to say the trade title differences are holding up the bill, and that it should drop out, House negotiators say it's not time to give up yet.

Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Mich., a member of the conference committee for the China package, said he has not talked to Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del, about his new bill to pair trade adjustment assistance renewal and a limited trade promotion authority for a free trade agreement with the United Kingdom. But, Kildee said, "I think trade adjustment is so important, I'm willing to put it on any train that will leave the station and reach Biden's desk." Kildee added that he would be cautious about agreeing to take TAA out of the China package. "But I would have to have a lot of certainty that this was not an off ramp, but an on ramp," he said.

There isn’t a “coherent” strategy among the various bills in Congress to address international technology competition, said Jon Bateman, a technology policy expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Bateman, speaking during a June 23 event hosted by Foreign Policy magazine, said the lack of coherence isn’t “altogether surprising, partly because the government is “classically plagued with coherence problems.”

More than 120 business executives this week urged congressional leadership to “act urgently” to pass the Bipartisan Innovation Act, which is currently in conference. The bill is “critical” to the U.S. economy and would help strengthen domestic manufacturing and supply chains, said a June 15 letter signed by the leaders of major technology firms, electronics manufacturers, semiconductor companies and others. “Our global competitors are investing in their industry, their workers, and their economies, and it is imperative that Congress act to enhance U.S. competitiveness,” the letter said. “We call on Congress to act promptly to achieve a bipartisan agreement that can be passed and signed into law.” Signers include CEOs of Adobe, Uber Technologies, Alphabet, GlobalFoundries, IBM, TSMC and Lockheed Martin.

A top official in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said that opposition to extending a moratorium on tariffs on sales of intangible goods has surfaced before, but that the e-commerce moratorium has been renewed at every World Trade Organization ministerial conference since 1998. "There are a few countries, despite benefiting from e-commerce and digital trade, who continue to resist an extension of the moratorium," she said, but most countries, including in the developing world, see the tariff-free status as important.

A German think tank specialist in semiconductors' value chain vulnerabilities told the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission he's concerned that the policy focus on bringing more production back to either the EU or the U.S. won't achieve its aims because policymakers aren't sure what those aims are.

The U.S. should create a new multilateral export control regime to counter China’s unfair industrial policies and misuse of sensitive technologies, said Mark Dallas, an associate professor at Union College in New York and a fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations. A new regime would create a “unified, clear and multilateral voice” around export controls and would reduce “commercial tensions” between the U.S. and its allies through better information sharing and enforcement.

The World Trade Organization must renew the moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions (see 2205190049) at the ministerial conference in Geneva next week, said John Neuffer, CEO of the Semiconductor Industry Association. In a June 9 SIA blog post, Neuffer said the moratorium is at “serious risk” from some WTO members who are in favor of the increased tax revenue the duties could bring.