Biz lobby expresses concerns to U.S. over planned investment curbs in China’s high-tech sector

South Korea's business community has submitted formal concerns to the U.S. Treasury Department regarding Washington's policy to restrict American investments in China's advanced technology sector, sources said Friday. According to the sources, the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) sent a letter to the department on Aug. 4 expressing concerns about potential penalties for non-Americans who might inadvertently violate Washington's planned investment restrictions in China's advanced technology sectors. In the letter, Lee Sung-woo, the head of the KCCI's international trade division, emphasized that the regulations as of now inherently carry potential extraterritorial impacts and the scope must be clarified while requesting clear compliance guidelines for foreign companies. The KCCI also suggested limiting the scope of the regulations to companies where U.S. persons or entities hold more than 50 percent of the equity or board voting rights. The chamber expressed concerns that if the regulations e xtend to foreign entities, it could stifle investments that U.S. investors might otherwise pursue. It stressed that third-country companies should not be treated as subjects of these regulations. In August last year, the U.S. administration announced a plan to restrict American investments in three key Chinese sectors -- advanced semiconductors, quantum computing and artificial intelligence. In June, the Treasury Department outlined a regulatory proposal to implement these restrictions and recently sought feedback from relevant countries, including South Korea. Source:Yonhapi News Agency