White House clarifies Trump’s statement about Huawei. Ban lifts only for general goods

A White House official clarified that President Donald Trump’s decision to reverse the ban on the sale of U.S. equipment to Huawei only applies to general equipment and products that are widely available in the global market, Reuters reported.

The White House official further added that sensitive equipment produced by U.S. companies are still off limits to the Chinese tech giant.

This comes as the U.S. is still very concerned with Huawei having close ties with the Chinese government, is a serious security risk. The White House official further said that sensitive technology developed by American companies are still off-limits.

“All that is going to happen is Commerce will grant some additional licenses where there is a general availability” of the parts the company needs, National Economic Council chairman Larry Kudlow said on Fox News Sunday.

U.S. microchip firms in particular “are selling products that are widely available from other countries … This not a general amnesty … The national security concerns will remain paramount,” he said.

Kudlow also said the broader concerns about Huawei will be part of the renewed discussions and that the agreement made over the weekend “is not the last word,”.

The partial lifting of restrictions on Huawei was a key element of the agreement reached over the weekend between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to reopen stalled trade negotiations between the two countries.

It has drawn bipartisan criticism from U.S. Senators concerned that Huawei has close ties to Chinese intelligence agencies that could exploit the global distribution of its technology.

Huawei strongly denies developing products with a built-in backdoor that the Chinese government can exploit. The company has sought to contest the allegations in U.S. courts since Washington put it on an export blacklist last month. Huawei contends that the ban is “unlawful” and unconstitutional.