US government confirms it will issue licenses to sell parts to Huawei

U.S Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross confirmed that the U.S. government will issue licenses to local companies seeking to sell components to Chinese vendor Huawei where there is no threat to national security, Reuters reported. Speaking at a conference in Washington D.C, Ross affirmed that the Chinese company would remain on the Entity List, which means that export licenses would have to overcome a presumption of denial. Ross also said that the scope of goods requiring licenses would not change. “To implement the president’s G20 summit directive two weeks ago, Commerce will issue licenses where there is no threat to U.S. national security,” Ross said. “Within those confines, we will try to make sure that we don’t just transfer revenue from the U.S. to foreign firms,” he added. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump said that U.S. companies can sell their equipment to Chinese vendor Huawei as long as the transactions won’t present a “great, national emergency problem.”