Scholz: Germany Could Become European Center For Semiconductor Production

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, speaking at the Digital Gipfel summit, said that Germany is working intensively on re-establishing semiconductor production potentially making Germany the European center of chip production.

• Scholz: This would create an ecosystem that would help the serenity of the European Union, that we are not dependent on other regions."
• Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron have led the European response to pieces of US legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Act, which Germany and France claim violate WTO principles and could lead to asymmetrical dependencies.
• Michele Berbero at Foreign Policy wrote yesterday: "Europe is realizing with dismay that its hopes of improved trade relations with the United States under President Joe Biden were a delusion, and it is preparing to respond in kind—potentially accelerating a general slide toward protectionism that risks undermining global trade."
• European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said last week, “the new assertive industrial policy of our competitors requires a structural answer.”