The office of the USTR received the SIA 2005 Administration Leadership Award for its effective work in resolving two major trade disputes with China. “The entire team at USTR worked tirelessly in a successful effort to resolve disputes with China concerning a discriminatory value-added tax and a restrictive standard on wireless communications devices,” says George Scalise, SIA president. “China is one of the largest and fastest-growing markets in the world for semiconductors, and it is critical that U.S. chipmakers are able to compete on a fair basis, unencumbered by market access barriers or restrictive government policies.”

(March 21, 2005) San Jose, Calif. &#8212 North American-based manufacturers of semiconductor equipment posted $1.03 billion in orders in February(three-month average basis), and a book-to-bill ratio of 0.78, according to the February 2005 Book-to-Bill Report, published by SEMI. A book-to-bill of 0.78 means that $78 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month.