License decision on shipments to Huawei could come next week: US Commerce Secretary

The US Commerce Department has decided to provide special licenses to interested suppliers to Huawei and the final decision on this matter expected to come by next week.

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Wilbur Ross, Secretary of U.S. Commerce said he expects a decision on the licenses will be “forthcoming” by the time he returns to the US from his foreign trips in the next few days, reported Reuters.

Ross told in a briefing he has received more than 50 applications so far for special licenses to do business with Huawei but he expects to receive more.

“The president and I met with representatives from the supply chain industry a week ago and a number said they have not sent the requests,” Ross said.

He said the administration is waiting for all of the interested suppliers, so they can process them as a unified bloc.

The licenses will provide clear direction for the U.S. firms of which they’ve been looking since the announcement made by U.S. President Donald Trump to ease trade restriction on Huawei.

In May, the US Commerce Department added Huawei in the trade blacklist and abandoned U.S. companies from supplying to the Chinese tech giant without special licenses.

Following this, on June 29, the US President Donald Trump announced that Huawei can resume buying US technologies.

This remarks made by Trump brought joy for Huawei suppliers but some of the White House officials say companies would only be allowed to sell “non-sensitive” technologies to Huawei and the terms on additional licenses are subject to remain.

For now, Huawei is waiting to get approval on resumptions of operating system Android and Windows, and hardware component including chips