By Hyunjoo Jin
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s ruling party on Monday proposed a special chip law to give chipmakers subsidies and an exemption from the national limit on working hours, to address potential risks from measures threatened by the incoming president of the United States, Donald Trump.
The semiconductor industry is central to the trade-dependent economy, Asia’s fourth largest, where chips accounted for 16% of total exports last year.
Last week, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol warned of risks from Trump’s threat to impose steep tariffs on Chinese imports that could lead Chinese rivals to cut export prices and undercut chip companies. Koreans abroad.
The bill, which needs the approval of the main opposition party to pass, comes as chipmakers such as Samsung Electronics also prepare for growing competition from rivals in countries such as China, Taiwan and others. .
It will help Korean companies fend off challenges as China, Japan, Taiwan and the United States provide subsidies to manufacturers amid a China-U.S. semiconductor trade war, one of the project’s sponsors said in a statement. of law, legislator Lee Chul-gyu. .
Some employees involved in research and development will be allowed to work longer hours under the bill, which aims to eliminate labor law that limits weekly hours worked to a maximum of 52.
This month, Samsung’s union opposed such a move, saying the company was trying to blame the law for its “management failure.”
Last month, Samsung apologized for its disappointing profits as it has fallen behind rivals TSMC and SK Hynix in taking advantage of growing demand for artificial intelligence chips, as competition from Chinese companies grows.
In October, Trump threatened to eliminate federal chip subsidies for Taiwan’s TSMC, South Korea’s Samsung and SK Hynix and others in favor of import tariffs.
(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin in Seoul; Additional reporting by Jihoon Lee and Hyonhee Shin in Seoul; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)