Worried about the potential impact on domestic companies, the U.S. Department of Commerce suspended plans to expand the trade ban, and Huawei eschewed the prospect of tougher restrictions.
Huawei has become at the heart of the fierce trade friction between Trump's government and China. According to Reuters, since November 2019, the US Department of Commerce has been looking for ways to further restrict Huawei, studying regulations that can improve its export supervision authority over Huawei, for fear that it still cannot reach its key supply chain.
At present, the U.S. government can prohibit or require enterprises to obtain licenses to sell products to China, if the U.S. originating technology accounts for 25% or more of the products.
The U.S. Department of Commerce has drafted regulations to reduce the 25% threshold to 10% and add more non-technical products to give it more power.
But Huawei may have found its allies in the most unexpected places - the US Department of defense and the Treasury both opposed the agreement, which led the commerce department to temporarily cancel the review process of the plan.
According to the Wall Street Journal, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper appropriately used a pragmatic tone in his interview. "We have to be aware of the need to maintain the supply chain and innovators of those [technology] companies," he said. That's the balance we have to achieve. "
A source told Reuters that the U.S. Department of defense cited concerns from U.S. companies that increased regulation of sales to Huawei would unnecessarily hurt them and eventually lead the supplier to seek parts from outside the United States.
The U.S. government plans to meet this week to solve the problem.
