The U.S. government appears to be stalling over a move to relax the licensing procedures for U.S. chip-equipment makers in China, although San Jose-based SEMI has scored one major victory. The U.S. government has announced its support for a proposal to relax export controls for U.S.-made automatic test equipment (ATE) into China starting in 2005.

While the proposal is a major victory for U.S. ATE vendors, all U.S. fab-tool providers are still behind the curve in terms of doing business in China, said Maggie Angell, director of public policy at SEMI's North American operations in Washington.

"U.S. companies still remain at a disadvantage" over its foreign rivals in the China market due to outdated export laws and procedures, Angell told Silicon Strategies in an interview.

Acting on behalf of its U.S.-based members, SEMI for the last two years has been throwing its weight behind a growing campaign to reform or remove U.S. export controls on chip-making technologies and tools in China.

SEMI is pushing regulators to make it easier for U.S. tool exports into China, which is now the hottest market for semiconductor equipment. The group favors the changes to help level the playing field between U.S. vendors and their foreign rivals. Equipment makers from Europe, Japan and elsewhere are perceived to have an unfair advantage in China, because they have less stringent export laws in their respective nations, according to SEMI representatives.

At the Semicon West trade show last year, Angell pinpointed the key problem for U.S. vendors in China. Japanese and European companies are reportedly able to obtain export licenses for China within weeks — if not days. In contrast, U.S. fab-tool companies "routinely have six months, which is not the case in other countries," Angell said at Semicon West last year.

At that time, officials from the Commerce Department claimed they have taken steps to expedite the licensing procedures for U.S. chip-equipment providers.

The problem has not been resolved and the lag still exists. "This is still an issue," Angell said. "There is still a time delay. That affects companies and their customers."

The U.S. government appears to be moving slowly on export-control reforms. "Government does things at government speed. Different agencies have different views on controls," she said. "We are working to address that."

By: DocMemory
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