NEW YORK / WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Trump administration has notified Huawei suppliers, including 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 to people familiar with the issue. said Reuters.
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 it says poses a threat to US national security. and foreign policy interests.
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 did not receive any immediate comment, and a Commerce Department spokesman did not immediately return comments.
In an e-mail seen by Reuters documenting the actions, the Semiconductor Industry Association said 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.
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, could not be reached immediately for comment.
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 immediately respond to a request for comment.
Companies that have received the “intention to deny” notice have 20 days to respond, and the Commerce Department has 45 days to inform companies of any changes to a decision or it becomes final. The companies would then have another 45 days to appeal.
The United States placed Huawei on a “list of entities” of the Commerce Department in May 2019, restricting suppliers from selling US goods and technology to the company.
But some sales were allowed and others were denied while the United States lifted restrictions against the company, including expanding U.S. authority to apply for licenses to sell semiconductors abroad with U.S. technology.
Prior to the most recent action, about $ 150 billion worth of goods and technology licenses were pending, which were withheld because various U.S. agencies could not agree to grant them, a person said. familiar with the problem.
Another $ 280 billion in licenses for goods and technology for Huawei has not yet been processed, the source said, but now faces a higher likelihood of rejection.
A rule in August said that products with 5G capabilities could be refused, but sales of less sophisticated technologies will be decided on a case-by-case basis.
The United States made the latest decisions during a half-dozen meetings since Jan. 4 with senior officials in 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 said.
In doing so, officials rejected the vast majority of the approximately 150 contested applications and revoked the eight licenses to make them compatible with the new rejections, the source said.
The US action came under pressure from a recent Trump nominee 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.
The United States targeted Huawei in other ways during the administration. 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 the company’s business in Iran.
Meng said she was innocent. Huawei has denied allegations of espionage and pleaded not guilty to charges, which include allegations of violations of US sanctions against Iran and conspiracy to steal trade secrets from US technology companies.
Reporting by Karen Freifeld and Alexandra Alper; edited by Chris Sanders and Jonathan Oatis