US suspends trade ban on Huawei again

An announcement by the American Commerce Department gave permission to US companies for “specific, limited engagements” with Huawei for the next 90 days.

It is the latest in a series of temporary exemptions and met a cool response from Huawei, which said in a statement, “Extending the Temporary General License won’t have a substantial impact on Huawei’s business either way. This decision does not change the fact that Huawei continues to be treated unfairly either.

“We have long held that the decision by the US Department of Commerce to add Huawei to the Entity List has caused more harm to the US than to Huawei. This has done significant economic harm to the American companies with which Huawei does business and has already disrupted collaboration and undermined the mutual trust on which the global supply chain depends.

“We call on the US government to put an end to this unjust treatment and remove Huawei from the Entity List.”

Global impact

Huawei was put on the list by the Trump Administration in May, caught up in the Sino-American trade war, accused of being a threat to American national security. Huawei relies heavily on US companies for software and silicon, including the Android operating system for its smartphones.

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Since May, Huawei’s profits have soared, the company has moved to a ‘war footing’ to become more self-sufficient, and fears for telecoms’ global supply chain have reached unprecedented levels.

Stéphane Richard, Orange’s CEO and Chairman, said in a recent keynote, “We are facing market fragmentation [but] restricting market access to key components and products will reduce the addressable market size for everyone, decrease competition and increase costs.”