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U.S. Commerce has not cleared its stance on Trump’s promises about Huawei: Report
Trump’s announcement about easing restrictions on Huawei seems to be like some empty words because its government officials remain ambiguous on the opinion about this new reprieve to the telecom giant.
Huawei’s restriction ease brought share rise for business partners
John Sonderman, Deputy Director of the Office of Export Enforcement, in the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), sought to clarify how agents should approach license requests by firms seeking approval to sell to Huawei, in an email to enforcement staff on Monday that was seen by Reuters.
All such applications should be considered on merit and flagged with language noting that “This party is on the Entity List. Evaluate the associated license review policy under part 744,” he wrote, citing regulations that include the Entity List and the “presumption of denial” licensing policy that is applied to blacklisted companies.
On June 29, Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Japan announced that U.S. technology firms can resume their business with Huawei.
In May, the US Commerce Department added Huawei to the “Entity List” or simply called a trade blacklist – an action that bans Huawei from buying components and software from firms inside the country.
The announcement made by Trump made tech firms happy but at the same time, Trump didn’t clarify which business are allowed to resume working with Huawei.
A person familiar with the matter said the letter was the only guidance that enforcement officials had received after Trump’s announcement on Saturday.
Recently a White House official said that the government would only allow tech supplies to Huawei that are widely available and not allowed to access sensitive technologies.
Currently, it’s unclear when the commerce department will provide its staff with additional guidance, based on what Trump has promised for Huawei, and how it’ll imply in the process of obtaining additional licenses for doing business with the company.
