The cabinet is tightening the export conditions for chip machinery maker ASML to countries outside Europe to prevent “disruption of the economy”, foreign trade minister Reinette Klever has said in a briefing to MPs.

The company will have to have a government export licence for every machine destined for a non-European country, bringing it in line with American export rules.

ASML has come under scrutiny for some time because it is one of the main manufacturers of state-of-the-art chip machines.

ASML’s deep ultraviolet lithography technology used to make the most advanced microchips must not fall into the hands of China, Klever said, because the country may use it to disrupt the economies of Europe and the United States.

“We have a responsibility here which we are taking seriously,” Klever said. She said the measure is not an export ban but an assessment of the suitability of the product for export to China.

ASML told broadcaster NOS  the decision does not alter the situation for the company and that the export rules of the Netherlands and the United States are being “harmonised”.