The US government has lifted some export restrictions to China, including certain software for designing chips.
The Trump administration imposed the restrictions as part of an escalating trade conflict with China. In a recently concluded interim trade deal, the Americans promised to lift the restrictions.
Companies Synopsys, Cadence Design Systems and Siemens were hit by the measure, which required them to apply for an export license to sell software for the automation of chip designs. That restriction has now been lifted, they tell the Bloomberg news agency. Siemens says that Chinese customers also have full access to the software again.
China and the US agreed in May to temporarily lower each other’s import duties after previously bombarding each other with increasingly high tariffs. In the meantime, they would work on a broader agreement. But then trade tensions rose again.
According to the US, China did not keep its promise to export rare earth metals more quickly, which are important for many technological applications in aircraft and wind turbines, for example.
In response, the US restricted the export of chip software as well as the export of aircraft engines and the raw material ethane. Last month, the two countries agreed to supply these products to each other again.
