US again extends Huawei reprieve
FCC plans vote to restrict purchases
WASHINGTON: This week began with the Trump administration giving Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, the Chinese telecom giant, a reprieve. It will most likely end with a different set of regulators voting to make it more difficult for the company to do business in America.
The Commerce Department said on Monday that it would extend for 90 days the licence that allows companies to export goods to Huawei, despite its placement on a government blacklist that bans it from doing business with American partners.
On Friday, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will vote on whether to ban wireless providers from buying Huawei equipment with federal subsidies meant to expand broadband access to underserved areas.
The whiplash-inducing week reflects Huawei’s tenuous position in Washington as the Trump administration, along with lawmakers from both parties, tries to cut off the company’s access to US technology and markets over national security concerns.
In addition to the blacklist, which bans US companies from selling technology and other products to Huawei, policymakers have tried to stop federal agencies from doing business with the company.
The fate of Huawei — one of China’s most visible tech companies — has also become a bargaining chip in Trump’s trade war with Beijing.
The president has routinely linked the company’s fate with trade talks, and his willingness to ease restrictions on Huawei in exchange for other concessions has worried China critics, who say it is unwise to mix national security and trade negotiations.
Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said on Monday that if Trump and the Commerce Department “agree that Huawei is a national security threat, they should start acting like it.”
This is the second time the Trump administration has extended the licence allowing US companies to continue exporting to Huawei. The previous extension was set to expire on Monday and this next reprieve will end on Feb 16.
The Commerce Department said a second extension was necessary to avoid service disruptions in rural areas, where some carriers use Huawei equipment.
The extension will also benefit some large US tech companies, like Google, that supply Huawei with certain components for its products.
Those companies have also urged the administration to allow firms to continue doing business with Huawei.
The temporary reprieve did little to satisfy Huawei, which has protested its inclusion on a United States “entity list” that the administration has increasingly used to block Chinese tech companies.
“Extending the Temporary General Licence won’t have a substantial impact on Huawei’s business either way,” a Huawei spokesman said in a statement. “This decision does not change the fact that Huawei continues to be treated unfairly.”
The Chinese company has also been pushing back on the FCC measure, which would make it impossible for wireless carriers to buy equipment from Huawei or ZTE Corp, another Chinese telecom company, using federal subsidies meant to expand broadband access.
The measure that the FCC’s five commissioners will vote on Friday will address only future purchases of Huawei and ZTE equipment, but it also begins an examination of an even more loaded question: What to do with the equipment that has already been installed?