US sees China tech-export limits deal with allies in near term

The top US official overseeing export controls said he expects a deal with global allies to limit shipments of chip-production equipment to China in the “near term,” building on rules Washington announced earlier this month. 

“We expect to have a deal done in the near term,” Alan Estevez, under secretary of Commerce for industry and security, told an audience at an event hosted by the Washington-based Center for a New American Security on Thursday. Making the controls multilateral is “a work in progress.”

The US Commerce Department unveiled the sweeping regulations on Oct. 7, aiming to curb the sale of advanced semiconductors and equipment to China and ban Americans from helping with the country’s development of chip technologies, striking at the foundation of the country’s efforts to build its own cutting-edge chip technologies. 

The move sent shock waves through the $550 billion industry. Already, US chip-equipment suppliers such as Lam Research Corp., Applied Materials Inc. and KLA Corp. have stopped employees from working with China’s top memory chipmaker and indicated their sales will take a hit.