Commission chairs global semiconductor meeting

The 2024 Governments Authorities Meeting on Semiconductors (GAMS) - the 25^th annual meeting of its kind - was attended by officials from governments and authorities, as well as representatives of semiconductor industry associations from the European Union, China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Chinese Taipei and the United States. The Commission chaired the meeting.

The main topics discussed covered issues related to:

• workforce development;
• cooperative approaches in protecting the global environment;
• the effective protection of intellectual property;
• fighting the proliferation of semiconductor counterfeiting;
• encryption certifications and licensing regulations;
• customs and tariffs;
• regional support programmes, and;
• global supply chains.

The commitment to the GAMS process fits with the objectives of the EU Chips Act to better understand and monitor global semiconductor supply chains. The EU Chips Act policy framework notably aims to track how the supply chain functions, identify future trends, anticipate disruptions, and build strong international partnerships.

Given the globalised semiconductor value chain, the GAMS aims at maintaining strong international cooperation, in order to achieve global supply chain resilience and safeguard a balanced development of the sector. Greater coordination among regions should help to reduce trade frictions, and to promote resilience, fair competition and sustainability.

Background

Semiconductors are essential for the modern world. They are the building blocks of all electronic devices, enabling our digital economy and driving global innovation in technology, communication, health care and energy efficiency, among others. Such ubiquitousness has in recent years attracted increased public policy attention on the sector. 

The GAMS was initiated in 1999 as a unique setting where governments and industry associations together representing 95% of the world’s semiconductor production (the EU, Japan, South Korea and the United States, joined later by Chinese Taipei and China) meet to respond to common challenges facing the industry.

The industry associations meet annually and issue a set of recommendations to the public authorities meeting in GAMS. At the annual GAMS meeting, the governments and authorities are asked to take action on the industry’s recommendations.