US Plans to Issue Huawei Export Licenses Soon, Report Says

The Trump administration plans to soon issue export licenses to allow a “select few” U.S. companies to supply nonsensitive goods to Huawei, an Oct. 9 report in The New York Times said. Trump approved the step in a meeting last week, the report said, a little more than a month after the Commerce Department renewed the temporary general license for Huawei until Nov. 18 (see 1908190039).

A Commerce spokesperson declined to comment, saying the agency has “no announcements to make at this time.”

Top Commerce officials have said for months the agency would soon be issuing decisions on Huawei licenses, including Secretary Wilbur Ross, who said in July the agency would be issuing licenses “within the next few weeks (see 1907240030). Chinese officials are expected to bring up Huawei and other Chinese tech firms added to Commerce’s Entity List in trade talks this week, trade experts said (see 1910090069).

Asked about the U.S.’s plans to approve some Huawei-related export licenses, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson criticized the Entity List restrictions. “China urges the US side to stop the unjustified suppression and sanctions against Huawei and other Chinese enterprises [and] treat them in a fair, just and non-discriminatory manner,” the spokesperson said during an Oct. 10 press conference, according to a transcript in English released by the Chinese Embassy in Washington, “and work to promote the sound and steady development of China-US economic and trade cooperation instead of the contrary.”