South Korea has asked the United States to ease its proposed limit on the expansion of production by South Korean semiconductor manufacturers in China.

According to documents released by the U.S. Federal Register on Tuesday, Seoul made the formal request regarding the guardrails for the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act.

On March 21, the U.S. Commerce Department unveiled detailed conditions attached to grants for semiconductors researchers and manufacturers under the act, effectively prohibiting Samsung Electronics and other potential recipients from expanding production capacities in China and Russia by more than five percent for advanced chips.

The documents showed that Seoul asked Washington to increase the limit to ten percent, stressing that the "guardrail provisions" should not be implemented in a manner that imposes an unreasonable burden on companies investing in the U.S.

The government also requested that the U.S. review the proposed rule's current definitions of "material expansion," "legacy semiconductor" and other key terms.

The request is an apparent call by Seoul for the U.S. to allow South Korean chipmakers to increase production in China while receiving U.S. subsidies.

The guardrails allowed expanding capacity in China by ten percent for legacy semiconductors, which use older technologies.