SAN JOSE, CA – The Semiconductor Industry Association applauded today’s announcement by U.S. Trade Rep. Susan C. Schwab that the U.S., Canada, the European Commission, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, and Switzerland would seek to initiate negotiations on an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.

“Given the ubiquity of semiconductors in computers, telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics, automobiles, and medical equipment, reliability problems caused by counterfeit semiconductors can cause economic losses and safety effects far exceeding the value of the semiconductor itself,” said SIA president George Scalise.

SIA has seen an increase in cases of counterfeit semiconductors in recent years, with the most common problem being re-marked products.

“SIA looks forward to working with U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab and her team as the anti-counterfeiting agreement is developed to ensure that the problems of semiconductor counterfeiting are appropriately addressed,” Scalise concluded. “We are hopeful that more governments will join the effort to develop an agreement that provides strong and effective cooperative actions against counterfeiting.”

The SIA recently formed an Anti-counterfeiting Task Force that works to combat counterfeiting; the group develops standards with SEMI to facilitate the use of encrypted “license plates” on containers that can be authenticated by third parties.

In May, the World Semiconductor Council issued a statement calling “for all governments/authorities to implement effective enforcement measures for protection of IP rights within their jurisdictions.”