Allies that don’t align on chip controls could face US component curbs, they argue

Banning sales to Chinese-government-affiliated companies, apparently, is not enough. A bipartisan group of American lawmakers this week called on the Trump administration to enact a blanket ban on the sale of equipment used in the production of advanced semiconductors to all of China.

In a letter to US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the group of eight members of Congress argued that entity-specific trade restrictions were ineffective and called on the US government and its allies to enact countrywide trade restrictions on chipmaking kit.

"Critical gaps persist in our export control regime. … Certain foreign-produced chokepoint SME (semiconductor manufacturing equipment) is controlled only for certain specific entities in China, rather than on a countrywide basis," they wrote. "Once equipment crosses the border into China, the US government has extremely limited ability to enforce end-use and end-user restrictions."

The US has spent the better part of a ...