NEW YORK / WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Trump administration has notified Huawei suppliers, including chip maker Intel, that it is revoking certain licenses to sell to the Chinese company and intends to reject dozens of other applications to supply the firm telecommunications, people familiar with the matter. he told 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 is a threat to to U.S. national security and foreign policy interests.
The warnings came amid a wave of U.S. efforts against China in the last days of the Trump administration. Democrat Joe Biden will be sworn in as president Wednesday.
An Intel Corp spokesman did not make any immediate comments and a Commerce Department spokesman did not immediately return requests for comment.
In an email seen by Reuters documenting the actions, the Semiconductor Industry Association said Friday that the Commerce Department had issued “the intent to deny a significant number of license applications for exports to Huawei and revocation of at least one previously issued license “. Sources familiar with the situation, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there was more than one revocation. One source said eight licenses were taken 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, was unable to contact him immediately for comment.
The semiconductor association’s email said the shares covered a “wide range” of semiconductor industry products and asked companies if they had received notices.
The email indicated that companies had been waiting “many months” to make licensing decisions, and when less than a week was left to administer, dealing with denials was a challenge.
A spokesman for the semiconductor group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Companies that have received “intent to deny” notices have 20 days to respond and the Commerce Department has 45 days to inform companies of any change in a decision or it will become final. Companies would have 45 more days to appeal.
The U.S. put Huawei on a Commerce Department “entity list” in May 2019, which restricted suppliers from selling U.S. goods and technology to the company.
But some sales were allowed and others refused as the United States tightened restrictions on the company, including expanding U.S. authority to require licenses to sell overseas semiconductors with technology. American.
Prior to the last action, some $ 150 billion worth of licenses in goods and technology were pending, which had been suspended because several U.S. agencies could not agree on whether to grant them, he said. a person familiar with the matter.
Another $ 280 billion in goods and technology licenses for Huawei have yet to be dealt with, the source said, but they are now more likely to be denied.
An August rule said products with 5G capabilities are likely to be denied, but sales of less sophisticated technology will be decided on a case-by-case basis.
The United States made the latest decisions during a half-dozen meetings beginning Jan. 4 with senior officials from the Commerce, State, Defense and Energy departments, the source said. Officials developed detailed guidelines on what technologies were capable of making 5G, and then applied that standard, the person said.
In doing so, officials denied the vast majority of the approximately 150 disputed applications and revoked the eight licenses to make them compatible with the new denials, the source said.
The U.S. action came after pressure from a recent Trump-appointed trade department chief Corey Stewart, who wanted to push China’s policies after being hired for two months at the agency at the end of the administration.
The United States has addressed Huawei in other ways during the administration. Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Huawei, was arrested in Canada in December 2018, under a US warrant. Meng, the daughter of Huawei’s founder, and the company itself were accused of cheating banks on the company’s business in Iran.
Meng has said he is innocent. Huawei has denied espionage claims and pleaded not guilty to the indictment, which also includes allegations of violating U.S. sanctions against Iran and conspiracy to steal trade secrets from U.S. technology companies.
Reports by Karen Freifeld and Alexandra Alper; edited by Chris Sanders and Jonathan Oatis