Since May, the US government and China have been involved in a trade war and Huawei was greatly affected by this move. Huawei trades with a lot of US companies and the executive order barred these companies from trading with the Chinese company.
However, late last month, Trump announced in a news conference in the G20 summit that US companies will be allowed to work with Huawei again. This was a surprisingly fast turnaround and at the time, we had no idea when that would be effected. US Commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross said that licences would be issued where there is no threat to national security. Well, it seems now we might have a clue.
According to Reuters, the US may approve licences for companies to restart new sales to Huawei in as little as two weeks.
Anonymous sources from two US chipmakers told Reuters that they will apply for more licences after Mr Ross’s comments. In addition, a customer response management company and a firm that simulates cross sectional radar for Huawei are also reported to file applications in the coming days.
Huawei is still not a fan of the licencing deal that is in place. “The Entity list restrictions should be removed altogether, rather than have temporary licences applied for US vendors,” a Huawei spokesman told the publication. “Huawei has been found guilty of no relevant wrongdoing and represents no cybersecurity risk to any country so the restrictions are unmerited.”
The anonymous tips to Reuters looks like massive lobbying by those companies due to the lost business made by the US government. Huawei spent $11 billion on components from US firms, so you’d be sure they want that business back.
