Malaysia's trade ministry said on Monday that the export, transshipment and transit of high-performance artificial intelligence chips of U.S. origin will be subject to a trade permit, effective immediately.

Malaysia is introducing new export restrictions on U.S. AI chips in an attempt to prevent these chips from being smuggled into China.

Malaysia has tightened rules around the movement of artificial-intelligence chips from the U.S., a hot-button issue for the Trump administration’s trade policy.