(Bloomberg) -- The Dutch government announced that companies will need an export permit if they want to sell quantum computers outside the European Union.
“The cabinet primarily took this step out of national security reasons,” Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Aid Reinette Klever wrote Friday in a letter to the Dutch parliament.
The regulation, which takes effect Dec. 1, applies to eight types of quantum computers, quantum measurement equipment and chipmaking technology, among other products. “A small number of companies” will be affected, Klever said.
While the measures are officially country neutral, the US has been pushing the Netherlands to limit exports of chipmaking equipment to China, targeting the sales of advanced machines of ASML Holding NV to the Asian nation.
Last month, the Netherlands published new export control rules that made ASML apply for export licenses in The Hague rather than the US for some older machines. That came after a Bloomberg News report that the Dutch government would limit some of ASML’s ability to repair and maintain its semiconductor equipment in China.
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