Trump threatens high-tech export curbs in China swipe
singapore — The Trump administration is considering tighter curbs on technology exports, a step that Deutsche Bank AG says would have a “profound and long lasting adverse impact” on relations between the US and China.
A request for public comment, published on Monday on the US government’s Federal Register, asks if a list of new technologies that have national security applications — from artificial intelligence to microprocessors and robotics — should be subject to more stringent export-control rules. That would affect US manufacturers as well as purchasers in China.
The news added to bearish sentiment in China’s stock market on Tuesday, with Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co and Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co leading large-cap losses.
“Many technologies and products are used for both military and civil purposes,” Deutsche Bank analysts Zhiwei Zhang and Yi Xiong wrote. “In an economic cold war, even if the controls are not imposed on certain products at the current stage, companies will likely feel the potential risk if the tension escalates.”
High-end technology has taken center stage in a burgeoning USChina trade war, as President Donald Trump pushes Beijing to drop plans to dominate leadingedge industries like electric vehicles, robotics and artificial intelligence. Trump plans to hold a high-stakes meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Group of 20 summit in Argentina.
The analysts said they put the chances of a trade deal between the world’s biggest economies at 40 per cent — down from 50 per cent previously — after neither side showed any sign of backing down at last weekend’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
Under the proposed curbs, Apple Inc, Alphabet Inc’s Google, IBM, Amazon.com Inc and similar companies could see limits placed on the way they export the technology behind voice-activated smartphones, self-driving cars and fast supercomputers to China, the Washington Post reported.