Benzinga | Apr 16, 2021 08:01AM EDT

US Congress Members Seek Chip Manufacturing Tools Embargo On Beijing: Reuters

* U.S. Congress representatives Michael McCaul and Senator Tom Cotton want a sales embargo on chip-manufacturing tools to Chinese companies, similar to Huawei Technologies Co, in a letter dated April 13 to the U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Reuters reports.

* The letter sought U.S. license requirements on Chinese companies for designing 14-nanometer chips or below and electronic design automation (EDA) software sales amongst multiple curbs on the Chinese companies.

* The letter was sent after Tianjin Phytium Information Technology and six other Chinese supercomputing companies were added to the entity list for aiding military modernization initiatives. The letter blacklisted seven Chinese supercomputing companies.

* Huawei was added to the Commerce Department's 2019 entity list over national security and foreign policy concerns.

* Huawei's embargo restricted sales from U.S. suppliers. However, the U.S. has allowed Huawei access to foreign-made goods based on U.S. technology or software.

* Cotton and McCaul sought a U.S. sales restriction to Phytium along with a licensing requirement for any company utilizing American tools for the manufacture of Phytium chips.