Senators Ask Trump to Suspend Approvals of Huawei Licenses

A bipartisan group of senators asked the Commerce Department to reverse its decision to approve Huawei-related export licenses (see 1911200041), saying the move poses significant national security risks. The senators, led by Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said in a Nov. 21 letter to President Donald Trump that they are “concerned that the approval of additional, more permanent licenses will allow Huawei to fully resume its engagement with certain U.S. firms without an adequate assessment of the risks to national security.”

Although the senators acknowledged the license decisions will be issued under a review policy of presumption of denial, they fear that several licenses will be granted after Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said in November the agency plans to grant “quite a few” (see 1911040031). The senators also pointed to recent Trump comments in which he said the U.S. should stop doing business with Huawei (see 1908090055).

“[Y]ou have said yourself that you did not want the U.S. doing business with Huawei,” the letter said. “[W]e believe that the approval of these export licenses would undermine the original intent of the Entity List designation, allowing Huawei to continue to pose a serious threat to U.S. telecommunications infrastructure and national security more broadly.”

The senators asked Commerce to suspend granting licenses until providing Congress with an outline of the “specific criteria” it uses to determine whether to approve a license. Commerce should also notify congressional leadership and “relevant committees” before the agency issues Huawei-related export licenses, the letter said.