In Summary. Posted:. Je ne peux pas accomplir cette tâche. Dutch Trade Minister Sjoerd Sjoerdsma traveled to Washington this week to meet with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and members of Congress in order to voice opposition to the MATCH Act. This bill would prohibit Chinese chip manufacturers from accessing Western semiconductor equipment, which would severely impact ASML. ASML, a Netherlands-based company, is Europe’s most valuable business and the sole producer of advanced lithography machines used for creating cutting-edge AI chips. Sjoerdsma stated, “It’s exceptional that I’m coming here to broadly outline our concerns to Congress,” according to Bloomberg following the meetings. “The situation for the Netherlands could be significantly critical.”. ASML’s net system sales are comprised of 19% from China. The MATCH Act aims to impose stricter controls by preventing ASML’s deep ultraviolet immersion machines from being sold to China, in addition to the existing ban on their advanced extreme ultraviolet tools. ASML CEO, Christophe Fouquet, mentioned that China can currently acquire older-generation deep ultraviolet equipment, which are the same machines that the MATCH Act intends to restrict. The bill, which was presented in April, has not yet been voted on by the House or Senate, and may require inclusion in a larger package to pass according to Bloomberg.
