U.S., EU must avoid subsidy race amid chip shortage - EU's Vestager

[November 12, 2021]  (Reuters) - The United States and the European Union must avoid a subsidy race as they rush to support semiconductor production amid a global chip shortage, EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said on Friday.

European Commission Vice-President in charge of Europe Fit for the Digital Age, Margrethe Vestager talks at the start of a meeting of the College of Commissioners at the Berlaymont, in Brussels, Belgium, November 10, 2021. Stephanie Lecocq /Pool via REUTERS

"We really need to avoid a subsidy race, a race that leaves everyone poorer off," Vestager said in a speech at the University of Leuven, warning taxpayers would have to fund this.

"In the present circumstances, it may be a temptation too hard to resist for companies to try to play governments out against one another, scanning the landscape to see who will pay more - the risk, of course, is letting taxpayers, whether European or American, pick up the bill and getting maybe very little from that investment," she continued.

(Reporting by Sabine Siebold; editing by Philip Blenkinsop)

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