US President Donald Trump on Monday met with executives from several of the nation’s leading chip and computer part makers and discussed restrictions his administration has imposed on the sale of components to Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd (華為), the White House said.
Huawei is embroiled in a trade dispute between China and the US. The Trump administration in May sanctioned Huawei, which it has deemed a threat to national security, and curbed sales of US equipment to the Chinese company.
The move was widely seen as intended to persuade resistant US allies in Europe to exclude Huawei equipment from their 5G wireless networks.
US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross has since announced a partial reprieve: His department will issue export licenses to companies to sell technology to prohibited foreign companies such as Huawei only when it is determined there is no threat to national security.
The White House said the technology chief executives requested that the US Department of Commerce make timely decisions on equipment sales and the president agreed.
The executives also expressed optimism about the deployment of 5G networks in the US.
Trump’s executive order in May empowered the government to ban the technology and services of “foreign adversaries” deemed to pose “unacceptable risks” to national security.
It did not name specific nations or companies, but followed months of US pressure on Huawei, the world’s biggest supplier of network gear.
Meanwhile, Trump has been escalating tariffs on Chinese imports.
The chief executives of chipmakers Micron Technology Inc, Qualcomm Inc, Intel Corp and Broadcom Inc attended the White House meeting, as well as the chief executives of Western Digital Inc, which makes data storage devices and cloud storage, and Cisco Systems Inc, which sells routers, switches and software.
The companies’ business has been hurt by the restrictions on Huawei.
Also attending was Google chief executive Sundar Pichai.
Google supports Huawei’s smartphones with its Android operating system. The tech giant in May announced that it would comply with the US restrictions meant to punish Huawei.
Google said it would continue to support existing Huawei smartphones, but future devices would not have its flagship apps and services, including maps, Gmail and search. Only basic services would be available for future versions.
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