Dutch Officials Remain Noncommittal on Joining US Chip Controls

Dutch officials continued to say the country isn't yet fully on board with recent U.S. chip export controls against China (see 2212080012), saying the Netherlands won’t succumb to American peer pressure. Prime Minister Mark Rutte, ahead of a Jan. 17 meeting with President Joe Biden, said the country is working methodically through potential new restrictions.

"This is a terrain where we're a world player and we can conduct discussions about it without immediately talking in terms ... of being 'put under pressure'. I don't experience it like that at all," Rutte said at a news conference last week, according to a Jan. 13 Reuters report. Speaking during a Jan. 17 Atlantic Council event, Rutte said the Netherlands is "a bit worried about unintended consequences for European companies" but said he had a "very good talk on this" with Biden earlier that day.

The Netherlands has "been talking with the Americans for a long time, but they came up with new rules in October, so that changes the playing field," said Foreign Minister Liesje Schreinemacher, according to a Jan. 16 Reuters report. "So you can't say that they've been pressuring us for two years and now we have to sign on the dotted line. And we won't."

Schreinemacher added that the U.S. has "justified worries" about its over-reliance on Asia and added that the Netherlands is also speaking with Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Germany and France about the new measures. She said the Dutch want to “ensure that if we put a certain technology on a list of products that can't be easily exported, that other countries do too.”

Bureau of Industry and Security Undersecretary Alan Estevez said last month he remains confident U.S. allies will impose similar export restrictions against China (see 2212060059). Schreinemacher last year said the Netherlands will work carefully through any new proposed controls but suggested an agreement on new restrictions could be reached "within a few months" (see 2211210035).