Huawei warned black-listing would impact its U.S. suppliers
The U.S. Commerce Department has received over 130 applications from U.S. firms for licenses to sell goods to Chinese vendor Huawei Technologies, Reuters reported, citing sources familiar with the matter.
However, the U.S. authorities have not yet granted any licenses for sales to Huawei, according to the report.
“Nobody in the executive branch knows what (President Trump) wants and they’re all afraid to make a decision without knowing that,” William Reinsch, a former Commerce department official reportedly said.
In July, U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross had said that the Commerce Department had received over 50 requests of licenses to exports goods to Huawei.
A spokesperson for the Commerce Department highlighted that the interagency process to analyze license requests involving Huawei is currently ongoing. According to the report, many of the licenses requests have been also reviewed by other government agencies such as the Departments of State and Defense.
In May, the Trump administration confirmed that the U.S. Department of Commerce added Huawei to its Entity List over security allegations, a decision that effectively banned the company from buying parts and components from U.S. companies without U.S. government approval. Under the order, Huawei will need a U.S. government license to buy components from U.S. suppliers.
At that time, firms including Google, Intel, Qualcomm and Microm had halted shipments due to the restrictions. Huawei relies heavily on computer chips imported from U.S. companies. Out of $70 billion that Huawei spent buying components in 2018, some $11 billion went to U.S. firms including Qualcomm, Intel and Micron Technology
Last month, President Donald Trump had agreed to grant “timely” licensing decisions to U.S. technology firms that want to sell components and services to Huawei, following a meeting between the U.S President and the CEOs of Google, Cisco, Intel, Western Digital Corporation, Micron, Qualcomm and Broadcom.
Trump said that U.S. companies can sell their equipment to Huawei as long as the transactions won’t present a “great, national emergency problem.”
Earlier this month, The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) renewed a special temporary general license (TGL) allowing Huawei to continue doing business with U.S. companies and serving existing customers for another 90 days.
In May, the u.S. authorities had issued a special license allowing the vendor to temporarily continue doing business with US partners. That license expired on August 19.
The extension of this special permit authorizes specific, limited engagements in transactions involving the export, reexport, and transfer of items to Huawei and its non-U.S. affiliates which are subject to the Entity List.
Also, as a consequence of the U.S ban, Huawei recently dismissed 600 employees at its US-based research arm, Futurewei Technologies. The subsidiary employs around 850 people in the states of Texas, California and Washington.
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