This archive report was first published on 3 July 2019.
US President Donald Trump's surprise announcement over the weekend to ease a ban on sales to Huawei Technologies Co Ltd has left the tech industry and government officials in a state of confusion.
On Saturday, Trump promised Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Japan that he would allow US companies to sell products to Huawei, the world's largest telecoms equipment maker and a key US customer.
However, a senior US official told the Commerce Department's enforcement staff this week that China's Huawei should still be treated as blacklisted, citing regulations that include the Entity List and the 'presumption of denial' licensing policy that is applied to blacklisted companies.
According to an email to enforcement staff on Monday, 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 licence requests by firms seeking approval to sell to Huawei.
He wrote that all such applications should be considered on merit and flagged with language noting that 'This party is on the Entity List. Evaluate the associated licence review policy under part 744.'
It is unclear when the Commerce Department will provide its enforcement staff with additional guidance, based on Trump's promises, and how that might alter the likelihood of obtaining licences.
Huawei has denied allegations of stealing American intellectual property and violating Iran sanctions, and has stated that founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei had said Trump's statements over the weekend were 'good for American companies.'
Published on July 3, 2019, at 10:54:33 AM.
