US lifts ban on EDA software sales to China

What happened: On July 2, US electronic design automation (EDA) giants Synopsys, Cadence, and Siemens announced that the US Commerce Department had officially rescinded a ban on EDA software sales to China, effective immediately.

Some context: The ban, imposed in May, was a response to Beijing’s delayed rare earth approvals, which the US believed violated the spirit of the Geneva agreement.

• The US-China trade talks in London in June – which were supposed to resolve the issue – failed to produce an immediate rollback of the EDA ban.

Better late than never.

• The reversal offers much-needed relief for China’s chip design sector, which depends heavily on EDA tools.

As we previously noted, the US ban would have been disproportionately disruptive if maintained.

• That’s why it seemed more like a negotiating tactic to force progress in US-China trade talks.

Here’s the bigger question, though: Are any Biden-era chip export controls on the table for negotiation?

We’re not holding our breath.

• But if any US president would remove chip restrictions in exchange for other concessions, it would be Trump.