Yellen concerned about Chinese restrictions on exporting metals for making chips

MADRID, 7 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The secretary of the United States Department of the Treasury, Janet Yellen, has expressed her concern about China's public aid to its companies and restrictions on access to the Chinese market for foreign companies, as well as new controls on the export of metals. critical to the manufacture of semiconductors.

In a meeting in China with representatives of the American business community present in the Asian giant, Yellen has reiterated the willingness of the United States to seek "healthy economic competition with China", although she has warned that this is only sustainable if said competition is fair. .

Thus, the US Treasury Secretary has indicated that in her meetings with the Chinese authorities she has reported the concerns of the US business community regarding Beijing's use of non-trade instruments, including the expansion of subsidies for their state companies, as well as the barriers to market access for foreign firms.

"I have been particularly concerned about the punitive actions that have been taken against American companies in recent months," Yellen warned, after the Chinese technology regulator last May vetoed the purchase of products made by the American Micron Technology considering that they may represent a national security risk for the country.

"I am also concerned about China's recently announced new export controls on two critical minerals used in technologies such as semiconductors," he said.

In this sense, the person in charge of Finance of the largest world economy has indicated that the Biden Administration is still evaluating the impact of these actions, although she has stressed that these measures remind us of the importance of building resilient and diversified supply chains.

Likewise, Yellen has defended that the actions taken by the United States are designed with specific objectives and are based on direct national security considerations and are not carried out to obtain an economic advantage over China.

"I have made it clear that the United States is not looking for a total separation of our economies. We are looking to diversify, not decouple," he assured, noting that the decoupling of the two largest economies in the world would be destabilizing for the world economy and practically impossible to carry out. cape.