Major US companies are getting caught up in a US President Donald Trump administration effort to identify companies with ties to the Chinese military that would restrict exports to them.
TTI Electronics Asia PTE Hong Kong Ltd, a subsidiary of a US-based TTI Inc, a Berkshire Hathaway Inc company, is on a draft list of such companies, as is Arrow Asia Pac Ltd, a subsidiary of Arrow Electronics Inc.
Both companies, which distribute electronics, deny links to the Chinese military and say they are taking steps to be removed from the list, if and when it is published.
A spokesman for the US Department of Commerce declined to comment.
The list is part of a draft rule that identifies Chinese and Russian companies the US considers “military end users,” a designation that means US suppliers must seek licenses to sell a broad swath of commercially available items to them.
TTI Electronics Asia is an authorized distributor of electronic components, none of which is a military or defense item, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
Arrow made a similar statement on Tuesday.
“Arrow carefully conducted an analysis of the draft rule and has concluded that Arrow Asia Pac Ltd is not a military end-user, nor does it engage in any military end-use as defined in the draft-rule,” it said.
Arrow distributes for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Rand Technology Inc, Intel Corp and Texas Instruments Inc, among many others, Source ESB said.
Reports on Nov. 22 said that the department had drafted a list of 89 Chinese and 28 Russian companies that it determined were “military end users.”
The pending list comes after the department in April expanded the definition of “military end user.”
The department rule includes not only armed service and national police, but any person or entity that supports or contributes to the maintenance or production of military items — even if their business is primarily non-military.
The licenses are more likely to be denied than granted, the department rule says.
The 117-company list is “not exhaustive” and is considered an “initial tranche,” the draft rule said.
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