US President Trump announced on Saturday that United States companies would once again be allowed to do business with Huawei; however, it was reiterated that Huawei would not be taken off the Entity List.
This takes a lot of the pressure off of Huawei, especially since some very valuable components to Huawei and Honor phones come from US companies.
White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow reiterated with the President that Huwaei would not be taken off of the Entity List; however, they would allow the US Department of Commerce to grant licenses to US companies that would allow them to continue doing base with the Chinese telecommunications giant.
President Trump had this to say
“I said that’s O.K., that we will keep selling that product, these are American companies that make these products. That’s very complex, by the way. I’ve agreed to allow them to continue to sell that product so that American companies will continue,”
The move sounds largely because of pressure from US chip makers, but might also appease China for advancing trade deal talks; however, a trade deal likely won’t happen without Huawei being taken off the Entity List.
Trump still says that Huawei is a major security threat.
“Huawei is very much in play in terms of our country and in terms of intelligence and the intelligence community — we know a lot about Huawei — but I don’t want to mention that right now. I just think it’s inappropriate. We’re not making it other than what I told you… We’re going to save that for later.”
Keep in mind that while these are official statements from President Trump, no official move has been made just yet to relive Huawei of some of these trade burdens, but that is expected to happen soon.
However, even if licensing is granted to trade with Huawei, there are still rippling economic effects that have already happened, with Huawei now projected that revenue estimates for 2020 have been slashed by almost $30 billion.
Huawei has not yet provided a statement.