(ATTN: RECASTS headline, lead; UPDATES throughout)

By Song Sang-ho

WASHINGTON, Aug. 6 (Yonhap) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order to protect America's manufacturing of polysilicon, a material crucial for semiconductors, in a move that his aide said is intended to safeguard the U.S. industry from "malign foreign actors."

The executive order came as the United States is stepping up efforts to maintain its technological edge amid intensifying competition with China over cutting-edge technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI).

Details of the order were not immediately available.

"Relating to the polysilicon industry, this is a series of trade and tariff actions under Section 232, intended to ensure that domestic polysilicon manufacturing is properly supported and protected from overseas dumping and offshore threats," White House Staff Secretary William Scharf said of the executive order as Trump was preparing to sign the document.

"Like many of your previous trade actions, this is intended to ensure that we're onshoring manufacturing capacity, that we're onshoring our own supply of critical products, and that we're protecting American industry from malign foreign actors in that space," he added.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick noted that polysilicon is a "foundational" product that is used to make silicon wafers for AI chips.

"We're making the products here, but we need the supply chain here," he said. "So this will bring the supply chain here. We're setting prices so that the Chinese can't dump anymore, and we're setting tariffs to say (you) build it here."

sshluck@yna.co.kr

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