NEW YORK / WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Trump administration has notified Huawei’s suppliers, including chip maker Intel, which is revoking certain sales licenses for the Chinese company and plans to reject dozens of other applications to supply the telecommunications company with people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The lawsuit – probably the latest against Huawei Technologies under Republican President Donald Trump – is the latest in a long-running effort to weaken the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker, which it says is a threat to U.S. national security and interests. foreign policy.
The notifications came amid a flurry of U.S. efforts against China in the last days of the Trump administration. Democrat Joe Biden will take the oath of president on Wednesday.
An Intel Corp spokesman did not immediately comment, and a Commerce Department spokesman did not immediately return requests for comment.
In an email seen by Reuters documenting the actions, the Semiconductor Industry Association said on Friday that the Commerce Department had issued “intentions to deny a significant number of export license requests to Huawei and the revocation of at least one previously issued license “. Sources familiar with the situation, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there was more than one revocation. One of the sources said eight licenses were withdrawn from four companies.
Japanese flash memory chip maker Kioxia Corp has had at least one license revoked, two sources said. The company, formerly known as Toshiba Memory Corp, could not be reached for comment.
The semiconductor association’s email said the actions covered a “wide range” of products in the semiconductor industry and asked companies if they had received notifications.
The e-mail reported that companies had been waiting “many months” for licensing decisions and, with less than a week to go, managing the denials was a challenge.
A spokesman for the semiconductor group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Companies that have received “intent to deny” notifications have 20 days to respond, and the Commerce Department has 45 days to notify companies of any changes to a decision or else it will become final. The companies would then have another 45 days to appeal.
The United States placed Huawei on a Commerce Department “entity list” in May 2019, restricting suppliers from selling U.S. products and technology to the company.
But some sales were allowed and others were denied, while the United States tightened restrictions against the company, including expanding the US authority to demand licenses for semiconductor sales made abroad with American technology.
Before the last action, some 150 licenses were pending for $ 120 billion in goods and technology, which were suspended because several American agencies were unable to reach an agreement on whether they should be granted, said a person familiar with the matter.
Another $ 280 billion in licenses for products and technology for Huawei have yet to be negotiated, the source said, but now face a greater likelihood of denial.
An August rule said that products with 5G capacity would likely be denied, but sales of less sophisticated technology would be decided on a case-by-case basis.
The United States made the latest decisions during half a dozen meetings that started on January 4 with senior officials in the departments of Commerce, State, Defense and Energy, the source said. Employees developed detailed guidance on what technologies were capable of 5G and then applied that standard, the person said.
In doing so, officials denied the vast majority of the nearly 150 disputed orders and revoked the eight licenses to make them consistent with the new denials, the source said.
The U.S. action came after pressure from a recent Trump nominee in the Commerce Department, Corey Stewart, who wanted to impose hardline policies on China after being hired for a two-month term at the agency at the end of the government.
The United States targeted Huawei in other ways during the government. Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial officer, was arrested in Canada in December 2018 under a U.S. warrant. Meng, daughter of the founder of Huawei, and the company itself have been indicted for misleading banks about the company’s business in Iran.
Meng said that she is innocent. Huawei denied the espionage charges and pleaded not guilty to the charge, which also includes charges of violating U.S. sanctions against Iran and conspiracy to steal trade secrets from American technology companies.
Reporting by Karen Freifeld and Alexandra Alper; edition of Chris Sanders and Jonathan Oatis