SIA Welcomes Progress on Trans-Pacific Partnership Talks, But Urges Swift Conclusion of Final Deal

by Semiconductor Industry Association

NEW RULES IN TPP WILL STRENGTHEN DIGITAL ECONOMY, PROMOTE SEMICONDUCTOR TRADE

WASHINGTON—July 31, 2015—The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), representing U.S. leadership in semiconductor manufacturing and design, welcomes the significant progress made at the latest round of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations and urges the 12 negotiating parties to return to the table post-haste to conclude this landmark trade deal, which will promote jobs and economic growth in the United States and around the world. Following a ministerial meeting in Maui, Hawaii, the countries – Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam – announced that negotiators needed more time to reach a final deal.

“It is critical that negotiators quickly come together again to conclude a final deal. There are too many great things in the TPP to allow it languish any further. Free trade is vital to the American economy and especially to the U.S. semiconductor industry, which exports more than 80 percent of its products to customers overseas,” said John Neuffer, president and CEO, Semiconductor Industry Association. “The Trans-Pacific Partnership will strengthen America’s standing in the world and do much to help our industry maintain leadership in the global market.”

The TPP contains several new features that will strengthen the digital economy and promote trade flows of semiconductors and other tech goods, including rules preventing market-access restrictions on commercial products with encryption, requirements to ensure cross-border data flows, rules against localization requirements for computer infrastructure, and non-discriminatory treatment of electronically transmitted digital products.

“This is the first major trade agreement that seriously contemplates how trade needs to be done in the global digital economy of the 21st Century,” Neuffer added. “The importance of this deal to our industry and the tech industry is immense. We look forward to seeing this deal cross the finish line.”

About SIA

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) is the voice of the U.S. semiconductor industry, one of America’s top export industries and a key driver of America’s economic strength, national security and global competitiveness. Semiconductors – microchips that control all modern electronics – enable the systems and products we use to work, communicate, travel, entertain, harness energy, treat illness, and make new scientific discoveries. The semiconductor industry directly employs nearly a quarter of a million people in the U.S. In 2014, U.S. semiconductor company sales totaled $173 billion, and semiconductors make the global trillion dollar electronics industry possible. Founded in 1977 by five microelectronics pioneers, SIA unites companies that account for 80 percent of America’s semiconductor production. Through this coalition, SIA seeks to strengthen U.S. leadership of semiconductor design and manufacturing by working with Congress, the Administration and other key industry stakeholders to encourage policies and regulations that fuel innovation, propel business and drive international competition.