On April 1, 2025, it was announced that the Department of Commerce had initiated an investigation under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 to determine the effects on the national security of imports of semiconductors and semiconductor manufacturing equipment (SME), and their derivative products. This includes, among other things, semiconductor substrates and bare wafers, legacy chips, leading-edge chips, microelectronics, and SME components. Derivative products include downstream products that contain semiconductors, such as those that make up the electronics supply chain. Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) recently issued a Federal Register notice announcing that interested parties may submit written comments, data or other information pertinent to these investigations. Comments are due no later than May 7, 2025.
BIS is particularly interested in comments addressing: (i) the current and projected demand for semiconductors (including as embedded in downstream products) and SME in the United States; (ii) the extent to which domestic production of semiconductors can or is expected to be able to meet domestic demand at each node size for each product type, and similarly the extent to which domestic production of SME can or is expected to be able to meet domestic demand; (iii) the role of foreign fabrication and assembly, test and packaging facilities in meeting U.S. semiconductor demand, and similarly the role of foreign supply of SME in meeting domestic demand; (iv) the concentration of U.S. semiconductor imports (including as embedded in downstream products) from a small number of fabrication facilities and the associated risks, and similarly the concentration of U.S. SME imports from a small number of foreign sources; (v) the impact of foreign government subsidies and predatory trade practices on U.S. semiconductor and SME industry competitiveness; (vi) the economic or financial impact of artificially suppressed semiconductor and SME prices due to foreign unfair trade practices and state-sponsored overcapacity; (vii) the potential for export restrictions by foreign nations, including the ability of foreign nations to weaponize their control over semiconductors and SME supply chains; (viii) the feasibility of increasing domestic semiconductor capacity (in different product types and node sizes) to reduce import reliance, and similarly the feasibility of increasing domestic SME capacity to reduce import reliance; (ix) the impact of current trade and other policies on domestic semiconductor and SME production and capacity, and whether additional measures, including tariffs or quotas, are necessary to protect national security; (x) what product types and node sizes could be built only using SME from U.S. companies; (xi) what SME is manufactured abroad and faces limited competition from U.S.-made products; (xii) what SME parts or components are only available outside the United States; (xiii) where the U.S. workforce faces a talent gap in production of semiconductors, SME or SME components; and (xiv) any other relevant factors.
Comments must be submitted at: www.regulations.gov. The Docket ID no. for this notice is BIS-2025-0021, and submitters must refer to XRIN 0694– XC121 in all comments.