The agreement between Japan and the EU provides, among other things, for the establishment of an “early warning system”. This system is intended to monitor problems in the chip industry supply chain. Plans are also outlined for cooperation in developing new chips and sharing information on subsidies. In this way, countries try to prevent China itself from producing advanced chips, so as to be less dependent on China and prevent the country from using the chips for military purposes.
Japan has already joined forces with the United States in May to strengthen cooperation on chip research.
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The enhanced cooperation follows an announcement from China on Monday. In it, the country announced that exporters of the important germanium and gallium chips must apply for permission from the Chinese government to export them from August 1. This export restriction, in turn, appears to be a counter-reaction to Dutch chip machine maker ASML’s export restrictions to China. The company is a leading developer of chip machines and has not been allowed to export some machines to China since September.
The agreement between Japan and the EU will be signed in Tokyo on Tuesday by European Commissioner Thierry Breton and Japanese Trade Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura.