By Hyunjoo Jin
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s ruling occasion proposed a particular chips act on Monday (NASDAQ:) to provide chipmakers subsidies and an exemption from a nationwide cap on working hours, to deal with potential dangers from measures threatened by incoming U.S. President Donald Trump.
The semiconductor business is important for the trade-dependent economic system, Asia’s fourth greatest, with chips making up 16% of whole exports final yr.
Final week, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol warned of the dangers stemming from Trump’s menace of steep tariffs on Chinese language imports that might immediate Chinese language rivals to slash export costs and undercut Korean chip companies abroad.
The invoice, which wants approval from the primary opposition occasion to be handed, comes as chipmakers like Samsung Electronics (KS:) additionally brace for rising competitors from rivals in nations akin to China, Taiwan and others.
It’s going to assist Korean firms fend off challenges as China, Japan, Taiwan and the US give subsidies to producers amid a semiconductor commerce warfare between China and the US, one of many invoice’s sponsors, lawmaker Lee Chul-gyu, stated in an announcement.
Some staff concerned in analysis and improvement shall be allowed to work longer hours underneath the invoice, which goals to waive the labour legislation limiting weekly hours labored to a most of 52.
This month, Samsung’s labour union opposed such a transfer, saying the corporate was making an attempt in charge the legislation for its “management failure”.
Final month, Samsung apologised for its disappointing revenue, because it has lagged rivals TSMC and SK Hynix in tapping booming demand for synthetic intelligence chips, as competitors from Chinese language firms grows.
In October, Trump threatened to scrap federal chip subsidies for Taiwan’s TSMC, South Korea’s Samsung and SK Hynix and others, in favour of import tariffs.
