Overview
- The Netherlands, which joined Pax Silica on June 23, has formally committed to an allied framework for coordinating AI-related supply chains while other partners include South Korea and Japan.
- Dutch Trade Minister Sjoerd Sjoerdsma traveled to Washington to lobby Congress and administration officials to narrow or drop the MATCH Act because the Dutch government views parts of it as extraterritorial.
- U.S. and Dutch officials agree on blocking ASML’s most advanced EUV machines from China but disagree over whether to bar sales and servicing of some deep ultraviolet (DUV) immersion systems that the MATCH Act would cover.
- ASML is central to the dispute because it is the only maker of EUV lithography and China accounted for roughly 19% of its recent net system sales; U.S. officials raised a June 14 concern about a possible ASML delivery to China that the company has denied.
- How the issue resolves could reshape trade sovereignty, ASML revenue and allied tech diplomacy because U.S. legislation must still clear Congress and the European Union has signaled it will engage on coordinated export rules.