Group set to join world council
By Liu Baijia (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-06-16 09:05
The China Semiconductor Industry Association (CSIA) is set to join the World
Semiconductor Council (WSC), signifying a shift to a more co-operative
relationship between Chinese and other major semiconductor powers.
The
CSIA and the WSC yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding in Beijing,
which invited the CSIA to apply for membership of the WSC.
The WSC is
composed of industrial organizations from all major semiconductor manufacturing
and consumption regions in the world except for China, the largest consumer of
semiconductors and the fastest growing manufacturer.
"The accession of
the CSIA into the WSC will promote exchanges and build a mutually beneficial
relationship between the two organizations," said Yu Zhongyu, chairman of the
CSIA.
He expected the Chinese Government would ratify the accession
agreement "very soon."
The CSIA has been talking with the WSC since 2001
about council membership. But the relationship between the Chinese semiconductor
industry and WSC members has been rocky.
In 2003, the WSC and the US
Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) launched complaints against China's
value-added tax (VAT) preference policy to semiconductor makers in
China.
The policy, drafted in 2000, said the actual VAT burden on
semiconductor manufacturers should not exceed 3 per cent.
Since the VAT
rate on imported products was 17 per cent, the WSC and the SIA believed it was
unfair to imported products, although the Chinese side had a different
interpretation on the actual VAT burden. In 2004, China scrapped the VAT
policy.
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