DETROIT: US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has said that the United States “won’t tolerate” China’s effective ban on sales of Micron Technology (MU.O) memory chips and was working closely with partners to confront such “economic coercion.”
After the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework negotiations, which were being headed by the United States, Raimondo stated at a news conference that the United States “firmly opposes” China’s measures against Micron.
These “target the US company without any factual foundation, and we see it as plain and simple economic coercion and we won’t tolerate it, nor do we think it will succeed.”
China’s cyberspace regulator said on May 21 that Micron, the biggest US memory chip maker, had failed its network security review and would block key infrastructure operators from buying from the company, prompting it to predict a revenue reduction.
The move came a day after leaders of the G7 countries agreed to new measures to push back against China’s economic coercion- a decision noted by Raimondo.
“We are closely collaborating with partners to address this particular difficulty and other concerns relating to China’s non-market practices, as we stated at the G7 and as we have stated repeatedly.”
In a meeting with Wang Wentao, China’s minister of commerce, on Thursday, Raimondo also discussed the Micron issue.
She said that the $52 billion CHIPS Act, which the US invested in to support semiconductor manufacture in the US, would be compatible with the IPEF agreement on supply chains and other key elements of the negotiations.
“The CHIPS Act investments are intended to boost and support our domestic semiconductor manufacture. Having said that, we encourage involvement from businesses based in IPEF nations, therefore we anticipate that firms from Singapore, Korea, Japan, and other nations will take part in CHIPS Act financing,” Raimondo added.
