The Huawei-Donald Trump saga continues as the USA president looks to grant licenses to some US companies and allow them to trade with Huawei. This comes after a meeting Trump had last week to approve licences to US companies. The deal only allows select companies to bypass the ban it recently gave Huawei early this year.
Huawei was put on an entity list with Trump citing national security reason. Huawei has denied any criminal wrongdoing and claims they are not a security threat. The ban effectively blocked Huawei from trading with US companies without getting approved. Huawei has gone ahead to launch products such as the Huawei Mate 30 series that don’t run on Google-approved Android.
Huawei got another extended reprieve that allows some U.S telecom companies reliant on Huawei to find other alternative partners.
This recent announcement will smooth the path to a trade deal amid ongoing talks between China and the USA this week in Washington. The New York Times reports that some in the Trump Administration have been eager to avoid more tariff increases and go for a limited agreement that would effectively end this trade war.
The licences only allow US companies to sell nonsensitive equipment to the Chinese tech giant. It is unclear if the licences extend to software such as Google’s Android.
If and that’s a big if the licences extend to Android, Huawei could bring back official Google Play services and Huawei’s future devices become more marketable. This could help the company secure its position as the world’s second-biggest smartphone manufacturer.
If the licenses are limited, then no big changes should be expected.
