Days after a Chinese regulator barred U.S. Micron Technology from selling memory chips to domestic consumers, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on Saturday that the ban was unlikely to be successful as Washington was coordinating with allies to address Beijing’s economic coercion.
Speaking during a news conference after a gathering of trade ministers at the US-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework talks, Gina Raimondo said the US strongly opposes China’s actions against Micron.
“This targets just one American company without any basis in fact, and we see it as plain and simple economic coercion and we will not tolerate it, nor do we think it will,” the commerce secretary said. It will be successful.”
On May 2021, the Chinese regulator said Micron, the largest US memory chip maker, had failed its network security assessment and would bar critical infrastructure operators from buying from the company.
According to analysts, the direct impact on Micron will be limited, as most of its key customers in China are consumer electronics players. However, he also warned that the move could encourage companies to cut their supply chains of Micron products due to the associated risks.
The development comes a day after Group of Seven (G7) leaders agreed to new measures to resist economic repression by China – a decision Raimondo noted.
“As we said at the G7 and as we have said continuously, we are working with partners to address this particular challenge and all challenges related to China’s non-market practices.”
Raimondo also raised the Micron issue in a meeting with Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao on Thursday.
He also said IPEF’s agreement on supply chains and other pillars of dialogue would be consistent with US investment in the $52 billion CHIPS Act to boost semiconductor production in the US.
“The Investment in Chips Act is aimed at strengthening and strengthening our domestic production of semiconductors. Having said that, we welcome the participation of companies in IPEF countries, you know, so we expect that companies from Japan, Korea, Singapore, etc., will participate in the funding of the CHIPS Act,” Raimondo said.
