The Netherlands is making its concerns known in Washington as U.S. lawmakers consider new restrictions on semiconductor equipment bound for China. At the center of the dispute is the MATCH Act, a bill that would tighten curbs on Chinese chipmakers and could directly affect ASML, the Dutch company that sits at the heart of advanced chip manufacturing.
Dutch Trade Minister Sjoerd Sjoerdsma visited Washington this week to meet with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and members of Congress. His message was focused on the risks the bill could create for the Netherlands and for ASML, Europe’s most valuable company.
Why the Netherlands is pushing back
The MATCH Act would bar Chinese chipmakers from accessing Western semiconductor equipment. That may sound like a broad geopolitical measure, but its effects would be highly specific for the Netherlands because of ASML’s unique position in the semiconductor supply chain.
ASML is based in the Netherlands and is the only maker in the world of the sophisticated lithography machines used to make cutting-edge AI chips. Because of that role, export rules covering semiconductor tools are not abstract policy questions for the Dutch government. They reach directly into one of the country’s most important corporate assets.
Sjoerdsma framed the trip as unusual and urgent. “It’s exceptional that I’m coming here to broadly outline our concerns to Congress,” Sjoerdsma told Bloomberg after the meetings. “The stakes for the Netherlands may be very high.”
What the MATCH Act would change
The bill would go further than existing controls. Current restrictions already include a long-standing ban on ASML’s most advanced extreme ultraviolet, or EUV, tools reaching China. The MATCH Act would expand curbs to include ASML’s deep ultraviolet immersion machines.
That distinction matters because the deep ultraviolet tools are not the newest generation of ASML equipment. ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet told TechCrunch in May that what China can currently buy are older-generation deep ultraviolet tools, gear first shipped about a decade ago.
Under the MATCH Act, those same machines would become off limits. In practical terms, the bill would not only preserve the existing restriction on EUV tools. It would also close access to equipment that has remained available under the current rules.
Why ASML is exposed
ASML’s position is unusual because it combines strategic importance with commercial exposure. The company makes equipment that is central to cutting-edge AI chips, and China accounts for 19% of ASML’s net system sales.
That figure helps explain why the Dutch government is treating the proposal as a high-stakes issue. A policy aimed at Chinese chipmakers would also reshape the market available to a company headquartered in the Netherlands.
The pressure falls in several places at once:
- For ASML: the MATCH Act would restrict sales of deep ultraviolet immersion machines to China.
- For the Netherlands: the bill could affect Europe’s most valuable company.
- For Washington: the proposal would push U.S. chip controls further than the existing limits.
- For China: Chinese chipmakers would lose access to more Western semiconductor equipment.
The dispute also shows how semiconductor restrictions can quickly become a transatlantic issue. The bill is being considered in Washington, but one of the companies most affected is Dutch. That is why Sjoerdsma’s meetings with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and members of Congress were aimed at explaining the Netherlands’ concerns directly.
What happens next
The MATCH Act was introduced in April, but it has not yet faced a full House or Senate vote. Bloomberg notes that it would likely need to be folded into a larger package to pass.
That means the proposal is not yet law. But the response from the Netherlands shows that the bill is already being treated as a serious threat by a key European government.
For now, the central question is whether Washington will move ahead with broader controls that include older-generation deep ultraviolet tools. If it does, the impact would reach beyond China’s chipmakers and into one of Europe’s most important technology companies.
The Netherlands is not simply objecting to a symbolic measure. It is warning that the MATCH Act could change the rules for ASML, alter access to a major sales market, and push the U.S. chip strategy into territory that directly affects a critical European supplier.