U.S. companies could resume selling their goods to Huawei in as early as two weeks, according to U.S. officials.
Reuters cited a representative for a U.S. manufacturer, who was told by a senior U.S. government official that licences to resume sales to Huawei could be granted in two-to-four weeks, although there were no details on the criteria for approvals, which could be made on a case-by-case basis.
The news will be a major boost to Huawei which has had its growth momentum significantly slowed down since May due to blanket U.S. federal restrictions that prohibits American companies from selling equipment and services to the Chinese company.
A Huawei spokesman told Reuters, “the Entity list restrictions should be removed altogether, rather than have temporary licenses applied for US vendors. Huawei has been found guilty of no relevant wrongdoing and represents no cybersecurity risk to any country so the restrictions are unmerited.”
At the G20 Summit recently, it appears President Donald Trump was ready to lift the restrictions following talks with Chinese president Xi Jinping, and commerce secretary Wilbur Ross then confirmed licences would be issued in cases where there was no threat to national security.
Reuters reported that Qualcomm, Intel and Micron — that together make US$11 billion out of the US$70 billion in total sales to Huawei — have already said they would apply for licences following Ross’s comments.
A customer response management company and a firm that simulates cross-sectional radar for Huawei are also likely to file applications in the coming days, according to Reuters.
The restrictions currently prohibit U.S. companies from making new sales of goods and services to Huawei, although they can still sell products to maintain networks and provide software updates to Huawei devices.
