Taiwan Adds Huawei, SMIC on Export Control List

Taiwan followed the lead of the US and other allies in blocking access to advanced chipmaking equipment and materials. It has imposed new trade controls on Huawei and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC).

Taiwan’s International Trade Administration put Huawei, SMIC, and several of their subsidiaries on its strategic high-tech commodities entity list. The restriction blocks access to Taiwan’s factory construction technologies, along with materials and equipment used to build advanced chips. The restrictions cover 7nm and more advanced designs used in AI accelerators and GPUs.

Including Huawei and SMIC, a total of 601 entities from Russia, Pakistan, Iran, Myanmar, and mainland China were added to the list to address national security concerns and control the export of equipment, software, and technology used to make weapons. Taiwanese regulations require local companies to secure government approval before they can export goods to customers on the entity list.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) highlighted in April the difficulties it faced in tracking the companies using its chips, pointing to limited visibility in the overall supply chain. In November 2024, the US Department of Commerce ordered TSMC to stop shipments of advanced chips used to support AI workloads to Chinese companies.