Commerce Hoping for Huawei Export License Decisions ‘Soon,’ BIS Official Says

The Commerce Department is reviewing export license applications to sell to Huawei in order to “mitigate as much of the negative impacts of the entity listing as possible” and hopes to have decisions “soon,” said Nazak Nikakhtar, Commerce undersecretary for the industry and security.

Nikakhtar, speaking at the Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security’s annual export controls conference on July 9, briefly spoke about Huawei after Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told the conference that Huawei would not be removed from BIS’s Entity List, confirming July 3 comments from an agency spokesperson (see 1907030069). Commerce is planning to roll back some restrictions on export licenses to Huawei and evaluate applications based on their U.S. national security impacts.

Nikakhtar said Commerce’s altered approach came from recent feedback from U.S. companies. “We’re moving forward cautiously by recognizing that the right approach is one that allows U.S. businesses to grow while we don’t stifle innovation but importantly while we also protect national security,” Nikakhtar said. President Donald Trump initially made the announcement at the G-20 Summit in Japan while announcing that the U.S. and China had agreed to resume trade talks.

Commerce officials at the BIS conference declined to elaborate on Ross’s comments. Anthony Christino, director of BIS’s Foreign Policy Division, said during a panel that it would “not be particularly appropriate for me to say anything other than what Secretary Ross said,” but he confirmed that any transactions involving Huawei remain subject to BIS’s review policy of presumption of denial. He also said the agency will “look carefully” and “may approve license applications that do not run adverse to U.S. national security.”

Nikakhtar said BIS “recognizes the impact our entity listing has on U.S. exporters” and urged companies to make use of the 90-day temporary general license the agency issued in May. She said BIS hopes U.S. industries “consider shifting towards other sources of equipment, software and technology.”

“The inclusion of Huawei on the Entity List was not taken lightly,” Nikakhtar said, “but we should not, nor should we ever, fail to take action because of a company's size or our dependence on export sales.”