The Trump administration has notified Huawei suppliers, including US chip maker Intel, that it is revoking certain sales licenses to the Chinese company and intends to reject dozens of other applications to supply the telecommunications company, well-known people told Reuters. agency.
The action – probably the latest against Huawei Technologies under Republican President Donald Trump – is the latest in a long-running effort to weaken the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker, which Washington sees as a threat to national security.
The remarks came amid a flurry of US efforts against China in the last days of the Trump administration. Democrat Joe Biden will be sworn in as president on Wednesday.
An Intel Corp spokesman declined to comment. Commerce said it could not comment on specific licensing decisions, but said the department continues to work with other agencies to “consistently” apply licensing policies in a way that “protects U.S. national security and foreign policy interests ”.
In an email seen by Reuters documenting the actions, the Semiconductor Industry Association said on Friday that the Commerce Department had issued “intentions to deny a significant number of license applications for exports to Huawei and revoke at least one previously issued license.” ”. Sources familiar with the situation, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there were several revocations. One source said eight licenses were extracted from four companies.
A “wide range” of products
Japanese flash memory chip maker Kioxia Corp has had at least one license revoked, two sources said. The company, formerly known as Toshiba Memory Corp., said it did not “disclose commercial details about certain products or customers.”
The semiconductor association’s e-mail said the shares covered a “wide range” of semiconductor products and asked companies if they had received notifications.
The e-mail showed that companies had been waiting “many months” for licensing decisions and that there was less than a week left in the administration, managing refusals was a challenge.
A spokesman for the semiconductor group did not respond to a request for comment.
Companies that have received the “intention to deny” notifications have 20 days to respond, and the Commerce Department has 45 days to inform them of any change in a decision or it becomes final. The companies would then have another 45 days to appeal.
Intensifying repression
The US placed Huawei on a “list of entities” of the Commerce Department in May 2019, restricting suppliers from selling US goods and technology to it.
But some sales were allowed, and others were rejected as the government stepped up its crackdown on the company, in part by extending U.S. authority to apply for licenses for overseas semiconductor sales with U.S. technology.
Prior to the most recent action, about $ 150 billion in goods and technology licenses were pending, which were withheld because various U.S. agencies could not agree on granting them, a person familiar with the case said. problem.
Another $ 280 billion in license applications for goods and technology for Huawei has not yet been processed, the source said, but is now more likely to be denied.
A rule in August said that products with 5G capabilities could be rejected, but sales of less sophisticated technologies will be decided on a case-by-case basis.
The last denials
The United States made the latest decisions during a half-dozen meetings since Jan. 4 with senior officials from the Commerce, State, Defense and Energy departments, the source said. Officials developed detailed guidance on what technologies were capable of 5G and then applied that standard, the person added.
This meant denying the vast majority of the approximately 150 contested applications and revoking the eight licenses to make them compatible with the latest rejections, the source said.
The US action came under pressure from a recently named Trump in the Commerce Department, Corey Stewart, who wanted to promote tough Chinese policies after being hired for two months in the agency at the end of the administration.
Trump has targeted Huawei in other ways. Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer, was arrested in Canada in December 2018 on a US warrant. Meng, the daughter of Huawei founder and the company itself, have been accused of misleading banks about his business in Iran.
Meng said she was innocent. Huawei has denied allegations of espionage and pleaded not guilty to charges, which also include allegations of violations of US sanctions against Iran and conspiracy to steal trade secrets from US technology companies.