A roundtable meeting of more than 40 Chinese and European semiconductor companies was held in Beijing last week, focusing on exchanges to deepen cooperation in the sector between China and Europe, according to a statement by the Ministry of Commerce of China (MOFCOM). Officials from MOFCOM, the China Semiconductor Industry Association (CSIA) and the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China attended the meeting. The roundtable emphasized that both China and Europe hold significant positions in the global semiconductor supply chain, and consequently, strengthening cooperation is in the mutual interest of both parties. Amid an increasingly complex international environment, marked with various kinds of volatilities, China will continue to expand high-level opening-up, providing enterprises with a fair, stable, transparent, and predictable policy environment. It supports Chinese and European semiconductor firms in leveraging their complementary strengths, deepening cooperation in accordance with laws and regulations, firmly opposing unilateralism and hegemonic practices, and striving to maintain the security and stability of the global semiconductor supply chain, said MOFCOM.
Participants unanimously agreed that the global semiconductor supply chain now faces severe challenges. The roundtable provided a good platform for Chinese and European semiconductor companies to enhance understanding, boost trade confidence, and deepen exchanges and partnership. Strengthened cooperation in the semiconductor sector between China and Europe will help inject new momentum into the recovery and growth of the global economy, said MOFCOM. Representatives from other Chinese ministries, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), attended the roundtable. Mao Ning, Spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry, said: “The semiconductor industry is highly globalized and its industrial and supply chains came into shape as a result of the choices of both the market and businesses. For some time, certain countries have been overstretching the concept of national security, pursuing export control and long-arm jurisdiction, and severely threatening the stability of global industrial and supply chains,” the China Daily reports.
The South China Morning Post adds that officials from MOFCOM made a presentation at the meeting on China’s export-control policy on rare earths, to help companies understand how to apply for an export license. The European Chamber's Secretary General Adam Dunnett said that European companies were experiencing significant negative effects due to the slow approvals of export applications. Production-line stoppages were expected to begin in Europe. Rare earth elements are essential for consumer electronics, electric vehicles and defense systems. China accounts for 92% of the world’s refined output of rare earth elements.
Meanwhile, former Director General of the World Trade Organization Pascal Lamy said there is “common ground” on which China and the European Union can work together and ensure that mutual and open trade remains a rules-based game. “We should do what China did to us 30 years ago,” Pascal Lamy told the South China Morning Post on the sidelines of the UBS Asian Investment Conference in Hong Kong, with the message being: “Welcome to the EU, provided you produce here.” Chinese investment in electric vehicles is the kind of investment that the EU wants, added Lamy, who is now Coordinator of the Jacques Delors think tank based in Paris. The other common interest that China and the EU share is their decarbonization drive, because “the direction of travel” between both sides is the same and “there is a lot of cooperation capacity there”, he noted.
