In March, Foreign Trade Minister Liesje Schreinemacher announced that the Cabinet would further restrict the export of Dutch chip machines to China. The minister wrote in a letter at the time that the measures were necessary for “international security”. Letter to Parliament.
according to bloomberg The government succumbed to pressure from the United States. They want to keep new chip technology out of Chinese hands.
At the beginning of this year, Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Minister Wopke Hoekstra (Foreign Affairs) visited the United States. During their meeting with US President Joe Biden, they discussed the issue of ASML, among other things.
Ruti did not want to say exactly what they discussed. But after a few months, the government announced that the export ban of chip machines was coming.
ASML has previously said that the measures will have a minimal impact on both the financial outlook for 2023 and the longer term. However, the company from Veldhoven suddenly finds itself in the middle of a conflict between the two largest economies in the world.