Huawei might get some relief from tough US export restrictions: Report

Huawei seems on the verge of getting some relief from the tough US trade export restrictions. After years of business war between the U.S. and China, it now looks like the foreign authorities might think about lifting some restrictions for their benefit.

Reuters recently reported that California Democrats are requesting the US authorities to pause their plans of further restrictions on Chinese companies like Huawei.

The democrats said so as they believe that one-sided sanctions will only aid foreign competitors, causing the U.S. business sector to fail. Some officials even stated that another round of sanctions could push the long-running US firms into a “death trap”.

On August 13th, two California lawmakers- Alex Padilla and Zoe Lofgren shared their concerns on this matter to Alan Estevez via a letter. Alan is a major executive at the U.S. Commerce Department who mainly looks after the export controls.

The letter read:

“We ask that you pause additional unilateral export controls until you have adequately justified that such controls will not damage US competitiveness in advanced semiconductors and semiconductor manufacturing equipment.”

Padilla and Zoe clarified that they don’t want a complete rollback of trade regulations on China. However, they stress how these restrictions will bring questionable security benefits when the authorities aren’t taking similar measures on this concept.

After this letter, the Commerce Department said that it will soon respond on this matter through appropriate means. It seems Huawei and other Chinese firms might get relief from the export restrictions, following the US business failure concerns.

The letter shows an aggressive move from California Democrats against the US Commerce Department. California is the leading state for making chips. It’s the home to the US’s top chip manufacturing units like LAM, KLA, Applied Materials, and more.

It’s not the first time that California lawmakers urged the U.S. authorities to freeze their restrictions. In April, Padilla and Governor Gavin Newsom requested the administration to take back their decision to cancel a subsidy program for the chip R&D sector.

Huawei Central’s Take:

Everything combined, the U.S. had to take some measures that could save its top business companies leading to failure. The U.S. authorities thought that tightening controls on Chinese firms would shield their national security in every possible way.

They did so under the concern that China may use advanced techs to hinder the US users’ security and boost its own military. Huawei refused these allegations in 2019, saying that it has no connection to this matter. But things proved vain.

Over time, the foreign government kept increasing its restrictions on Chinese companies. They stopped many regions like the Netherlands, Japan, and Tokyo from shipping advanced chipmaking tools to China.

Now it seems the U.S. forgot to view these changes from all angles. Probably to save the largest semiconductors firm from falling into a death trap, the U.S. might free up Huawei from tough export restrictions. But the decision is still pending and needs time for confirmation.

[Source]