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President Donald Trump’s government may respond next week to companies that have applied for a special licence to do business with Huawei, China. That license has been required since Huawei was blacklisted in the US.

That’s what Trade Secretary Wilbur Ross said during a visit to Brazil, writes Reuters. Ross says he expects the decision on the licenses to come out around the time he returns to the US. In the coming days he will first visit Argentina and Peru. Huawei was blacklisted because the US is afraid that the Chinese government may spy on the company’s equipment. American companies can now only do business with the manufacturer if they have a special license to do so. Huawei has always denied the accusations.

Confusion

At the end of June, however, there was a lack of clarity about the rules around Huawei. At the time, President Trump said that American companies could sell their equipment to Huawei, provided that the products do not affect national security. The president said the ban would be lifted. However, the US Secretary of Economic Affairs insisted on the trade restrictions that had been set. In the meantime, the government has taken the decision to make the ban a little more flexible. It has been decided that companies can indeed trade with Huawei, but only if they are licensed to do so. Yet there is a lot of confusion among companies about what is and is not allowed. For example, the licensing requirements have only been temporarily relaxed.

Fifty applications

Ross now states that he has had more than fifty applications for special licences to do business with Huawei. He’s expecting more of these to come.

The President and I met with representatives of the supply chain industry last week and many of them said that they had not sent any requests. Ross went on to say that he would like these companies to come together as a united bloc.

This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.