NEW YORK / WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Trump administration has notified Huawei vendors, including chipmaker Intel, that it is revoking certain licenses for sale to the Chinese company and plans to submit dozens of other requests for supply to the telecommunications company. refuse, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The move – likely 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 threatens U.S. national security and interests. foreign policy.
The communications came amid a flurry of US efforts against China in the closing days of the Trump administration. Democrat Joe Biden will take the oath of office as president on Wednesday.
An Intel Corp spokesperson did not immediately comment, and a trade department spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In an email seen by Reuters documenting the actions, the Semiconductor Industry Association said on Friday that the Department of Commerce “planned to withdraw a significant number of licensing requests for exports to Huawei and a withdrawal of at least one earlier. license issued “. Sources familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity said there was more than one revocation. One of the sources said eight licenses have been taken from four companies.
Japanese flash memory chip maker Kioxia Corp had revoked at least one license, two of the sources said. The company, formerly known as Toshiba Memory Corp., was not immediately available for comment.
The email from the semiconductor association stated that the actions covered a “wide range” of products in the semiconductor industry and asked companies if they had received any notices.
The email stated that companies had waited “many months” for licensing decisions, and with less than a week to go into the administration, dealing with the denials 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 decline’ notices have 20 days to respond, and the Department of Commerce has 45 days to notify the companies of any change to a decision or it will become final. Companies then have another 45 days to appeal.
The United States placed Huawei on the trade division’s “entity list” in May 2019, prohibiting suppliers from selling US goods and technology to the company.
But some sales were allowed and others denied, while the United States raised restrictions against the company, including the expansion of the US authority to demand licenses to sell semiconductors made abroad with US technology.
Before the latest action, about 150 licenses were pending for $ 120 billion worth of goods and technology, which had been held up because several US agencies could not agree on whether to grant them, a person familiar with the matter said.
An additional $ 280 billion in licenses for goods and technology for Huawei have still not been settled, the source said, but are now more likely to be denied.
An August line said products with 5G capabilities would likely be declined, but sales of less advanced technology would be decided on a case-by-case basis.
The United States made the final decisions at half a dozen meetings that began on Jan. 4 with senior officials from the Commerce, State, Defense and Energy departments, the source said. The officials developed detailed guidelines as to which technologies were capable of 5G, and then applied that standard, the person said.
In doing so, the officials denied the vast majority of the roughly 150 disputed applications and revoked the eight licenses to bring them into line with the new denials, the source said.
The US move came after pressure from a recent Trump appointee at the Department of Commerce, Corey Stewart, who wanted to push through with China’s tough policies after being hired at the agency for a two-month term at the end of the administration.
The United States has attacked Huawei in other ways during the government. Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer, was arrested in Canada in December 2018 on the basis of a US warrant. Meng, the daughter of Huawei’s founder, and the company itself were charged with misleading banks about the company’s affairs in Iran.
Meng has said she is innocent. Huawei has denied the claims of espionage and pleaded not guilty to the charges, which also include allegations of violating US sanctions against Iran and conspiring to steal trade secrets from US technology companies.
Reporting by Karen Freifeld and Alexandra Alper; edited by Chris Sanders and Jonathan Oatis