US President Donald Trump on Wednesday extended for another year an executive order signed in May last year declaring a national emergency and barring US companies from using telecommunications equipment made by firms posing a national security risk.
The order invoked the US International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which gives the president the authority to regulate commerce in response to a national emergency.
US lawmakers said that Trump’s order last year was aimed squarely at Chinese companies such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and ZTE Corp (中興).
Photo: AP
The US Department of Commerce is expected to extend again a license, set to expire today, allowing US companies to keep doing business with Huawei, a person briefed on the matter said.
The department has issued a series of extensions of the temporary license and previously extended it until April 1.
Huawei, the second-largest maker of smartphones, is also a major telecoms equipment company that provides 5G network technology.
In March, the department sought public comments on whether it should issue future extensions and asked what was the “impact on your company or organization if the temporary general license is not extended?”
It also asked about the costs associated with ending the licenses.
Wireless trade association CTIA urged the department to approve a “long-term” license extension, writing that “now is not the time to hamper global operators’ ability to maintain the health of the networks.”
The association said that “ongoing, limited engagement with Huawei to protect the security of equipment and devices in the market benefits American consumers by reducing the risk that they will be subject to device compromise.”
It also asked the department to “reinstate and modify its prior authorization for standards development work to allow for exchanges with Huawei in furtherance of global telecommunications standards.”
The commerce department and Huawei declined to comment.
Since adding Huawei to an economic blacklist in May last year, citing national security concerns, the department has allowed it to purchase some US-made goods in a move aimed at minimizing disruption for its customers, many of which operate wireless networks in rural areas of the US.
In November last year, the US Federal Communications Commission designated Huawei and ZTE as national security risks, effectively barring their rural customers in the US from tapping an US$8.5 billion government fund to purchase equipment.
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
Nissan Motor Co has agreed to sell its global headquarters in Yokohama for ￥97 billion (US$630 million) to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group (敏實集團), as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition is led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management Ltd, a Japanese real-estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. KJR said it would act as asset manager together with Mizuho Real Estate Management Co. Nissan is undergoing a broad cost-cutting campaign by eliminating jobs and shuttering plants as it grapples
The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically made artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centers that are less than 30 percent complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage would be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China’s most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a
RSS