\n<\/p>\n
China has told the Netherlands to \u201cstop interfering\u201d in the seized chipmaker Nexperia, accusing it of prolonging a dispute that has disrupted the global car industry.<\/p>\n
The Dutch government took control of the semiconductor-maker at the end of September amid US security concerns about the company\u2019s Chinese parent, Wingtech Technology.<\/p>\n
In response, China halted exports of Nexperia products, restricting access to the vital components used in everything from airbags to central locking, and prompting carmakers in the EU, the UK and Japan to issue warnings that supply shortages could lead to stoppages.<\/p>\n
The EU is in the middle of urgent talks with Beijing to lift export controls on the chips and also on crucial rare earth minerals, after a summit with officials from both sides in Brussels on Friday.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, however, China signalled its decisions were still being coloured by the Nexperia dispute, accusing the Dutch of failing to cooperate on export exemptions and urging them to work in a \u201cconstructive manner\u201d to ease supply chain issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Netherlands continues to act unilaterally without taking concrete steps to resolve the issue, which will inevitably exacerbate the adverse impact on the global semiconductor supply chain,\u201d China\u2019s ministry of commerce said. \u201cNeither China nor the global industry wishes to see this.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement on Tuesday, the European Commission said it had made some progress on Friday and that Beijing had committed to engaging further over other restrictions on rare earths including the magnets that control car window mechanisms and boot openings.<\/p>\n
The commission will debrief EU ambassadors on Wednesday and has asked member states to report back by Friday on the impact of the chip ban in their factories. Carmakers in the EU warned last week they were \u201cdays away\u201d from production stoppages.<\/p>\n
The trade tensions with the EU are in contrast to the truce struck between China and the US last Thursday. The White House said in its readout after the agreement that China would \u201celiminate\u201d all \u201ccurrent and proposed export controls on rare earth elements and other critical materials\u201d and end the semiconductor \u201cretaliation\u201d.<\/p>\n
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Sign up to Business Today<\/span><\/p>\n Get set for the working day \u2013 we’ll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n The Dutch government invoked a cold war era law when it seized control of the chipmaker, ousting its chair, Zhang Xuezheng, in part because of fears that Wingtech could move intellectual property to another company it owned.<\/p>\n It also came after the US raised concerns early in the summer about Nexperia\u2019s management. Court documents show the US Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation told the Dutch foreign ministry in June: \u201cThe fact that the company\u2019s CEO is still the same Chinese owner is problematic \u2026 It is almost certain that the CEO will have to be replaced.\u201d<\/p>\n The dispute escalated last week when Nexperia told customers all supplies to its Chinese factory had been suspended. Although Nexperia\u2019s chips are manufactured in Europe, about 70% are packaged in China before distribution.<\/p>\n Wingtech said the actions of the Dutch government \u201cappear to be aimed at allowing a new Dutch-owned company to take Nexperia\u201d. It warned that \u201cany Nexperia-successor company is doomed to fail\u201d, adding that \u201c80% of Nexperia\u2019s back-end capacity is within mainland China\u201d.<\/p>\n A spokesperson said: \u201cIf this matter is not resolved very soon, there will be no company left for customers to return to, and hundreds of people in the Netherlands, Germany and the UK will lose their jobs with many more affected indirectly across Europe. Nexperia\u2019s European employees are very concerned about this, but the company\u2019s senior Dutch management appears oblivious to these concerns.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n The Dutch economic affairs ministry told Reuters that talks between the two governments were still under way. \u201cWe remain in contact with the Chinese authorities and our international partners to work toward a constructive solution that is good for Nexperia and our economies,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n The dispute adds to the turmoil that UK auto manufacturers have faced after a cyber-attack forced Jaguar Land Rover, Britain\u2019s largest carmaker, to halt production in September.<\/p>\n JLR has resumed production, supporting a small boost to UK factories in October. Experts have estimated the attack cost the UK economy about \u00a31.9bn, affecting as many as 5,000 organisations across the company\u2019s supply chain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" China has told the Netherlands to \u201cstop interfering\u201d in the seized chipmaker Nexperia, accusing it of prolonging a dispute that has disrupted the global car industry. The Dutch government took control of the semiconductor-maker at the end of September amid US security concerns about the company\u2019s Chinese parent, Wingtech Technology. In response, China halted exports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[6536,4291,1495,2153,1942,2746,1654,5742,1545,18637,899,261],"class_list":{"0":"post-32212","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-accuses","9":"tag-automotive","10":"tag-car","11":"tag-china","12":"tag-chip","13":"tag-dutch","14":"tag-factories","15":"tag-halt","16":"tag-industry","17":"tag-prolonging","18":"tag-threatens","19":"tag-war"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}