Janet Yellen Says US Working To Guard Against 'Geopolitical Coercion' By Russia, China

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, at an event hosted by the Bretton Woods Committee on Wednesday, reportedly said the United States was working to boost its supply chains and guard against "geopolitical coercion" by Russia, China and others. She also noted that the global economy was facing "significant headwinds."

Integration: Yellen observed that the U.S. is looking to deepen integration with the European Union and Indo-Pacific countries, along with many emerging markets and developing nations, and is developing more redundancies in its supply chains, reported Reuters.

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"We know the cost of Russia's weaponization of trade as a tool of geopolitical coercion, and we must mitigate similar vulnerabilities to countries like China," she said.

Extreme Dependence: Yellen spoke about how the U.S. was working to cut back its companies' "extreme dependence" on semiconductors from Taiwan and other technologies, including solar panels or critical components for electric vehicle batteries made in China and a few other nations.

"Friend-shoring is not meant to be a tiny handful of countries. It's not meant to be protectionism. It's something that's meant to [gain] diversity...but still get the benefits of trade," Yellen said, according to the report.

Chip-related stocks, including Apple Inc AAPL-supplier Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. Co. Ltd. TSM and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd SSNLF, had tanked this week as traders and investors digested the Biden administration’s new curbs on China’s access to U.S. semiconductor technology.

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