U.S. government starts issuing Huawei licenses to companies

The U.S. government says that it has started to issue licenses for some companies to supply goods to blacklisted telecommunications company Huawei.

The Commerce Department says that companies have started to receive notices of approval, while others have been given “intent to deny” notices.

This not a surprise as U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross recently confirmed that licenses to work with Huawei would be sent out soon.

It is unknown which companies have received notices, but the department has said that it received around 290 license requests. In this process, most people will be paying attention to Google and whether the tech giant will be able to work with Huawei again.

On November 18th, the U.S. provided another 90-day extension for the Huawei ban, which means that it will go into effect in February 2020.

In May, U.S. President Donald Trump banned Huawei from working with any U.S.-based company. Shortly after, Google pulled its business from the company, which includes pulling services from Huawei phones.

In June, the government lifted the ban to an extent and said that companies could apply for a licence but they would be reviewed closely and would only be granted if a national security threat is not posed.

The U.S. has accused Huawei of using backdoor equipment to spy on citizens. It has also charged the company, its subsidiary Skycom and its CFO Meng Wanzhou with 13 counts of bank and wire fraud. Meng is awaiting extradition to the U.S. following her arrest in Vancouver.

Source: Reuters