US govt could soon allow companies to trade with Huawei again

The US government could soon allow US companies to sell components to Huawei, according to an interview by Bloomberg with US commerce secretary Wilbur Ross.

Huawei was placed on an entity list in May, disallowing it from trading with US firms.

Ross noted that the government had received 206 requests from firms to trade with the Chinese mobile and telecoms giant.

Ross did not reveal the names of the companies, but Huawei’s probably hoping that the likes of Broadcom, Google, and Intel are on that list.

More importantly, Ross explained that these licences will be “forthcoming very shortly” suggesting that the US government is open to granting licences to these companies, and in the near-term.

Huawei has been identified by the US government as a national security risk, despite the Chinese firm denying any wrongdoing.

The US trade ban has also left a dent in recent Huawei launch plans, and we’ve felt this in South Africa too.

The Huawei Mate 30 Pro, a device that looks stellar on paper, has not yet launched in the country. It does not currently feature any Google apps or Google Mobile Services, the backbone of the Google ecosystem.

Whether the latest news delivered by Ross remedies Huawei’s western issues remains to be seen.

Feature image: The Huawei Mate X foldable phone, by Andy Walker/Memeburn