BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission will analyse the U.S. ban on new U.S. investment in China in sensitive technologies such as computer chips and is in close contact with the U.S. administration, the EU executive said on Thursday.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed an executive order to prohibit or restrict U.S. investments in Chinese entities in three sectors: semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum information technologies and certain artificial intelligence systems.
“We take note of the Executive Order on outbound investment released by the U.S. on 9 August. We will be analysing the Executive Order closely,” a Commission spokesperson said in an email.
“We are in close contact with the US administration and look forward to continued cooperation on this topic.”
A spokesperson for the German economy ministry took note of the commission’s move to assess the ban and told Reuters: “We will be actively involved in this process.”
Still smarting from a breakdown in its economic ties with Russia, Berlin has called for a de-risking approach to China and begun looking at measures to address risky foreign investments.
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee and Andreas Rinke; writing by Rachel More; editing by Jason Neely and Matthias Williams)
