Speaking at a Bloomberg event on Dec. 9, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondi said that the U.S. was working to create a “very powerful” economic framework agreement with Asian nations to rearrange supply chains away from China. In particular, Raimondi is keen on maintaining the all-important semiconductor industry as a proprietary industry based in the U.S. or in one of its allies. “If America puts export controls vis-a-vis China on a certain part of our semiconductor equipment, but our allies don’t do the same thing, and China can therefore get that equipment from our ally, that’s not effective,” she said.
While the U.S. is not prepared to join the CPTPP trade agreement in Asia, she said the Biden Administration was keen on building something independently which would help harmonize export controls to limit sensitive products that head to China. She also wants to consolidate monopoly control over AI advances.
