Semiconductor industry wants international travel to be open

Associations of the semi-conductor industry want open international travel policies to allow workers to install and maintain chip production and other complex equipment.

Semiconductor industry wants international travel to be open

The semiconductor industry broadly lobbies governments far and wide for unified policies that enable essential electronics workers to travel internationally. Ten industry associations in Europe, Asia and the United States issued a statement this week calling on 'all governments to provide accommodation and to harmonize policies to enable essential international travel to essential workers in a safe manner.

The statement notes that cross-border mobility in the semiconductor and microelectronics industries is "vital to maintain critical manufacturing operations that produce devices that are the basis of our modern economy, countless economic sectors and the response of each nation to the pandemic. Two U.S. associations-SEMI and Semiconductor Industry Association-endorsed the statement. They represent thousands of chip manufacturers and chip-makers.

In a report, Karl Kailing, SEMI advocacy president, urged governments to require supply chain engineers, technicians and executives to travel globally with "no disruption" to ensure that any fast-tracked procedures relate directly to the semiconductor industry. He said technicians from a semi-equipment company typically need to travel to semi-factories abroad to install or repair specialized tools when there is no local experts. Semi-based applications such as cloud computing must also be implemented or optimized on site to achieve full capacity for the equipment.

China is negotiating fast-track travel protocols with Asian and European countries and was formalizing a similar protocol with South Korea on May 1. China signed a similar agreement with Singapore last week. It will be difficult to get the US and several other governments to decide on a shared approach for semi-employee critical travel.

However, he added, with regard to international travel, "the industry has a point" "The tech industry, and the semi-industry in particular, is far-reaching throughout the globe and work can't just be done through Zoom. It is about physical product production and that needs to be done in factories. It would be a good thing to harmonize travelling. Certainly having to deal with the travel regulations of several countries puts greater pressure on the companies involved.

In addition to SEMI and the SIA in the United States, the declaration was signed by eight others: American Chamber of Commerce in Malaysia, Semiconductor Industry Association in China, Semiconductor Industry Association in the EU, Semiconductor Industry Association in Japan, Semiconductor Industry Association in Korea, Semiconductor & Electronics Industries in the Philippines Foundation, Singapore Semiconductor.