The Trump administration notified Huawei suppliers, including U.S.-based 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 company. of telecommunications, as reported in the news Reuters people familiar with the subject 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 considers a threat to to national security.
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 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” implement licensing policies in a way that “protects U.S. national security and the interests of foreign policy “.
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 the 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.
A “wide range” of products
Kioxia Corp., a Japanese flash memory chip maker, revoked at least one license, two sources said. The company, formerly known as Toshiba Memory Corp., said it does not “disclose business details about specific products or customers.”
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 respond to any requests for comment.
Companies that have received “intent to deny” notices have 20 days to respond and the Commerce Department has 45 days to inform them of any change in a decision or make it final. Companies would have 45 more days to appeal.
Intensifying repression
The U.S. put Huawei on a Department of Commerce “list of entities” in May 2019, which restricted suppliers from selling goods and technology to the U.S..
But some sales were allowed and others refused as the government intensified its crackdown on the company, in part by expanding U.S. authority to require licenses to sell semiconductors made abroad. with American technology.
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.
According to the source, another 280 billion license applications for goods and technology have not yet been processed for Huawei, the source said, but are now more likely to be denied.
An August rule said products with 5G capabilities are likely to be rejected, but sales of less sophisticated technology will be decided on a case-by-case basis.
The last denials
The United States made the final decisions during a half-dozen meetings that began 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 added.
That meant issuing denials for the vast majority of the approximately 150 disputed applications and revoking the eight licenses to make them compatible with the latest 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 in the end of administration.
Trump has addressed Huawei in other ways. 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 about their business in Iran.
Meng has said he is innocent. Huawei has denied espionage claims and pleaded not guilty to the indictment, which also includes charges of violating U.S. sanctions against Iran and conspiracy to steal trade secrets from U.S. tech companies.