Trump gives China's Huawei 90-day reprieve on doing business in the US
A US ban on trade with Huawei has been delayed by a further 90 days, the US Commerce Secretary has confirmed.
Wilbur Ross said that the Chinese telecoms firm would be permitted to buy supplies under a “temporary general license”, ensuring the company retains access to key components in the near-term.
Huawei, whose current reprieve was due to end Monday, has established itself as the world’s largest supplier of telecoms equipment, buying a number of supplies from US chipmakers such as Qualcomm and Intel for its technology. In 2018, Huawei spent $11bn in the purchase of components from US firms.
It has been swept into an ongoing trade war between the US and China in recent months, with the US alleging that the company could use its telecoms equipment to spy on behalf of the Chinese government. Huawei has denied all allegations of espionage and wrongdoing.
According to Mr Ross, the decision to extend the reprieve period was made to afford US companies more time to distance themselves from Huawei.
“We’re giving them a little more time to wean themselves off [Huawei],” he said.
It comes less than 24 hours after President Donald Trump cast doubt over any extension to the grace period, claiming he “does not want to do business at all” with the Chinese firm because they are a “national security threat”.
Despite extending the reprieve, Mr Ross said that an additional 46 affiliates of Huawei would be added to an Entity List, taking the total of Huawei entities identified on a blacklist to more than 100.
The decision follows a meeting between President Trump and Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, at the US president’s golf club in New Jersey.
The Apple boss “made a very compelling argument” that tariffs on China could hurt the smartphone maker and its ability to compete with rivals like Samsung, Trump said.
A majority of the company’s devices are manufactured in China, and as a fresh set of tariffs on electronic goods are due to come into effect in September, a number of Apple’s gadgets could take a hit.
The temporary licence has enabled US tech firms such as Google to continue trading with Huawei - which uses Google's Android operating system to power its smartphone line-up.
Since the US order, Huawei has publicly stated that "nothing has changed" with regards to its mobile devices, insisting to customers that they will continue to receive security and app updates as part of Android.
However, earlier this month, the company did unveil its own operating system, HarmonyOS, which it said it could use if it was no longer able to access Android in the future.
