TAIPEI, Oct 12 Reuters Taiwan was waiting for a decision by the U.S. government on whether Taiwanese chipmakers will be allowed a waiver extension to supply U.S. chip equipment to their factories in China, Economy Minister Wang Meihua said on Thursday.

Last October, the Biden administration published a sweeping set of export controls, including a measure to cut off China from certain semiconductor chips made anywhere in the world with U.S. tools, vastly expanding the reach of a bid to slow Beijing39;s technological and military advances.

South Korea39;s government said this week that Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix will be allowed to supply U.S. chip equipment to their China factories indefinitely without separate U.S. approvals.

Whether it will be the same treatment as Samsung and SK Hynix, it39;s up to the announcement from the U.S. government, Wang told reporters in Taipei.

TSMC, the world39;s largest contract chipmaker, said last year it had been granted a oneyear authorisation by the United States that covered its factory in Nanjing, China, that makes lessadvanced 28 nanometre chips.

TSMC has already received a oneyear waiver, and now we39;ll have to see whether the U.S. government will further loosen the measures, Wang said.

TSMC did not respond to a request for comment on the issue.

The United States had been expected to extend a waiver granted to the South Korean chipmakers on a requirement for licences to bring U.S. chip equipment into China.

Samsung…