Howard Ratnick, the nominee for Minister of the Department of Commerce who will oversee industrial and trade policies in the second term of the Trump administration, stated that he cannot guarantee subsidies related to the semiconductor law decided by the Biden administration until he reviews the contracts. Although domestic corporations such as Samsung and SK have already contracted with the U.S. government to receive subsidies amounting to trillions of won, concerns arise that the fulfillment of these contracts may become uncertain under the Trump administration.
During a Senate confirmation hearing held on the 29th, Ratnick was asked, "Will you fulfill the contract for the subsidies under the Biden administration's semiconductor law?" He replied, "I cannot say. I cannot fulfill what I have not read." He added, "To promise fulfillment, I need to read, analyze, and understand the contracts. How do I know if a signed contract is a transaction? I do not know."
Ratnick positively assessed the intent of the semiconductor law to provide subsidies to corporations producing semiconductors in the U.S. while simultaneously arguing for the need for re-evaluation. He described it as "a great down payment on our ability to bring semiconductor manufacturing back to the U.S.," but emphasized, "We need to review them to get it right." He continued, "We want to bring (semiconductor) innovation back to the U.S.," adding, "Let's bring in those corporations and manufacturing and innovate to produce them with American workers in the U.S."
President Donald Trump criticized the Biden administration's semiconductor law during last year's election campaign, asserting that imposing high tariffs on semiconductors would compel corporations to build factories in the U.S. Concerns were raised from that time that subsidies under the semiconductor law might be halted by the Trump administration.
As of December 19 last year, SK hynix reached a final contract with the Biden administration to receive $958 million (approximately 1.38 trillion won) for the construction of a memory plant in Indiana, while Samsung Electronics finalized a contract on December 20 last year for $4.745 billion (approximately 6.85 trillion won) in subsidies for the expansion of its semiconductor production facilities in Taylor, Texas.