This photo, provided by Samsung Electronics Co., shows the tech giant’s new production line (P3) in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul, the largest chip manufacturing facility ever built to date by Samsung, whose production of state-of-the art NAND flash began on Sept. 7, 2022.
WASHINGTON, May 23 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea has asked the United States to review the latter’s proposed limit on the expansion of production by South Korean semiconductor manufacturers in China, a U.S. public notice showed Tuesday.
The request comes about two months after the U.S. Department of Commerce said the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act will limit to five percent the expansion of semiconductor manufacturing capacity in China and other “foreign countries of concern” for companies that receive incentives under the U.S. act.
“The ROK believes that the “guardrail provisions” should not be implemented in a manner that imposes an unreasonable burden on companies investing in the United States,” Seoul said in comments on the proposed rule of the CHIPS Act funding.
“In this vein, the ROK requests the U.S. Government to review the proposed rule’s current definitions of “material expansion”, “legacy semiconductor”, and other key terms,” it added, according to documents released by the Federal Register.
ROK stands for the Republic of Korea, South Korea’s official name.
The CHIPS act offers up to US$52.7 billion in subsidies to semiconductor manufacturers that invest in new production facilities in the U.S., but allows the U.S. government to “claw back” incentives provided to any company that violates the so-called “guardrail provisions.”
Seoul asked to ask to “further clarify the scope of restricted activities under the “Technology Clawback.”
“The ROK will be submitting more detailed comments to the U.S. Government on how these important points may be addressed,” it said.
“The ROK requests the U.S. Government to actively consider the ROK’s comments when finalizing the detailed rules on the “guardrail provisions”,” it added.
(Yonhap)
