Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is “very worried” about the semiconductor industry for reasons akin to those cited by the Trump administration in pursuing Section 232 national security investigations into steel and aluminum imports, he said Monday night.
[Isabelle Hoagland] June 12th, 2017 [Inside Trade]
Ross, speaking at an event hosted by the Wall Street Journal, called the semiconductor industry the “basic building block” for “almost every” important technology product in effect now or “likely to go into effect.”
“So, it’s a hugely important thing and within that context – hugely important as well to the national defense interests,” he said.
“We are the technological leaders – as far as I can tell – in semiconductors right now,” Ross said, adding that it is “pretty clear” that the U.S. has a “big technological lead” in the sector.
However, he continued, “how would the world be if in five to 10 years from now, we had the same conditions in the semiconductor industry that we already have in steel and aluminum?”
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