Biden Aide Deese Asks Taiwan to Help Resolve Auto Chips Shortage

(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden’s top economic adviser, Brian Deese, has sought the Taiwanese government’s help resolving a global semiconductor shortage that’s idling U.S. car manufacturing plants, according to a letter reviewed by Bloomberg News.

In the letter, Deese thanked Taiwan’s minister of economic affairs, Wang Mei-Hua, for her personal engagement on the microchips shortage and relayed concerns from U.S. automotive companies.

Top White House officials are engaged in trying to resolve the shortage, which has presented an early challenge to Biden’s administration. Deese, the director of the National Economic Council, as well as National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan are personally involved in the effort to address bottlenecks in auto companies’ supply chains, a White House spokesperson said.

The spokesperson asked not to be identified by name because the talks have been private.

Taiwan is home to the largest semiconductor manufacturing industry in the world, and also relies on U.S. weapons to defend against China, which views it as part of its territory and has threatened to use force if Taipei moves toward formal independence.

The Biden administration has also asked U.S. embassies around the world to identify how foreign countries and companies that produce chips can help address the global shortage and to map the steps taken to date, the spokesperson added.

The formal outreach to Taiwan follows meetings between Deese and Sullivan and U.S. auto companies and their suppliers. The auto industry is leaning on the White House to pressure foreign chipmakers and their governments to allocate supplies to the U.S.

“We think those are reasonable things for the government to ask,” said Matt Blunt, president of the American Automotive Policy Council, which lobbies for Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Stellantis (formerly Fiat Chrysler Automobiles). “This is going to be a problem for the first half of the year.”

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