Dutch confirm additional semiconductor export controls
In a letter to the Dutch parliament, the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs has confirmed that it is preparing ‘national additional export control measures…in the field of advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment.’
As has been reported in WorldECR, it has long been anticipated that the Netherlands, and Japan, would establish legislation or policy to mirror US curbs on the export to China of semiconductor manufacturing equipment that was introduced last October.
The letter said:
‘Semiconductors are of great strategic importance for future military and civilian applications. The Netherlands plays an important role in this value chain worldwide. Given technological developments and geopolitical context, the government has concluded that it is necessary for (inter)national security to expand the existing export control of specific semiconductor manufacturing equipment. To this end, the cabinet will submit proposals in a multilateral framework aimed at having these high-value technologies controlled internationally. At the same time, the cabinet will also already take the necessary steps nationally and in the EU context.
‘As described in the parliamentary letter of 1 December 2022, the cabinet has prepared a complementary strategic framework for export control of semiconductor technology. This framework defines three strategic goals with (inter)national security as the starting point, namely;
1. preventing Dutch goods from contributing to undesirable end use, such as military deployment or in weapons of mass destruction;
2. preventing undesirable long-term strategic dependencies; and
3. maintaining Dutch technological leadership.’
It said that, when assessing an export licence application, ‘specific considerations are made in each case based on these three principles. The government makes an analysis of the risk of jeopardising one or more of these goals, looking at, among other things, the properties of the product to be exported, the applicability of the product, the end user and the country of destination.’
The letter in full (and in Dutch) can be found on the website of the Dutch Parliament:
