(Corrected spelling of Croles in paragraph 5)
Written by Toby Stirling
THE HAGUE (Reuters) – Europe needs to quickly, selectively and proactively support key technology industries amid the U.S.-China trade tensions, the Dutch economy minister said in an interview on Wednesday.
Mickey Adriansens refocused the Netherlands’ industrial technology policy on protecting and promoting some of the technologies in which the Netherlands has existing strengths, such as semiconductors, in which Dutch equipment company ASML is a leading player.
“I will speak to Mr. Breton tomorrow,” he told Reuters, referring to European Industry Commissioner Thierry Breton.
“My message is that we need a European strategy on (key) technologies.”
The European Chip Law is aimed at responding to chip subsidy programs in the United States and China, but so far it has only approved support from the French government for STMicroelectronics to build a factory in Crores, France. Intel and TSMC have announced plans to build factories in Germany, but they have not received approval from the European Union.
“Europe has good ideas and I really appreciate what the European Commission has been doing over the last few years,” Adriansens said.
“But we need to act, and we’re not very good at it. The Americans are better at that…We need to speed up enforcement.”
He said the Netherlands, a small trading nation, faced additional challenges as free trade came under pressure.
Under Prime Minister Mark Rutte, a leading candidate to become the next NATO Secretary-General, the Netherlands has so far supported a US-led campaign to restrict ASML from exporting its best equipment to Chinese customers.
Adriansens said the need to protect technology is the new reality, and her office introduced security reviews for overseas technology investments last year.
But he said the Netherlands would not necessarily support further restrictions or attempts to technically isolate China.
“There are negative side effects, so you have to be very careful about what you do,” she says.
“I can’t speak for the American nation. They have to fend for themselves, and they will. But from our perspective, we need the world and no one needs an open economy.”
(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Mark Potter)