U.S. companies can now work with Huawei again, but only 'where there is no threat to national security'

Huawei Logo
Huawei Logo (Image credit: Android Central)

What you need to know

  • The U.S. Commerce Department will begin issuing licenses to American companies that want to do business with Huawei.
  • Licenses will be approved "where there is no threat to national security."
  • Commerce secretary Wilbur Ross has said the department will continue to protect America's advanced technologies and no company should trade secrets or IP for access to growing markets.

After months of being in limbo, Huawei appears to be getting a reprieve from the Commerce Department. The good news comes, after Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross made the proclamation, that the department will begin issuing licenses to American companies looking to do business with Huawei "where there is no threat to national security."

The announcement lines up with Trump's promise that he would once again allow American companies to begin doing business with Huawei, following his meeting with Chinese President, Xi Jinping last month. The agreement was made in an effort to help jumpstart the stalled trade talks between the U.S. and China.

Soon after Trump's announcement though, the U.S. Commerce Department sent out an internal email reiterating that Huawei would remain on the blacklist. And that all requests to do business with the tech giant would be met with the "presumption of denial" policy.

However, it appears the guys over at the Commerce Department finally got Trump's memo and have begun to loosen up the restrictions on licenses to do business with Huawei.

At a CNBC event on Tuesday, Larry Kudlow, the director of the White House National Economic Council said, the United States has "opened the door — relaxed a bit, the licensing requirements from the Commerce Department" for U.S. companies to sell to Huawei.

The news comes after months of lobbying to end the ban on selling to Huawei from American companies such as Intel and Qualcomm. The companies argued that the ban would do little to stop Huawei from advancing and doing business, while causing more harm to American companies that would lose out on sales from competitors in Japan and South Korea.

Even though the Commerce Department has relaxed the restrictions on Huawei, Ross said, the administration will continue to protect America's advanced technologies, and companies should not give up intellectual property or trade secrets in order to gain access to fast-growing markets.

Google says cutting off Huawei could pose national security risk

Jason England
8 Comments
  • "American companies that would lose out on sales from competitors in Japan and South Korea." No they would not. Japan and South Korea has nothing close to replacing Android.
  • So, err, can they use Android again now too?
  • Technically, yes. But not Google's Android.
  • I read that Huawei are going forward with the Android Q update on their phones, high end phones I mean.
  • Huawei was going forward with the updates, even without the recent change. Basically finishing it up for release with the time they had left. With the recent change this article talks about, Huawei actually is allowed to work with Google on certified devices going forward. However, that can always change.
  • This is a mess...
  • It really is
  • "National security threat" have already devastated many countries and millions of lives