January 30 (Reuters) – The Biden administration has stopped issuing licenses for US companies to export most goods to China’s Huawei, according to three people familiar with the matter.
Huawei has been a supplier of 5G equipment and other technologies for years, but U.S. Commerce Department officials have issued licenses for some American companies to sell certain equipment and technologies to the company. Qualcomm Inc ( QCOM.O ) received approval in 2020 to sell 4G smartphone chips to Huawei.
A Commerce Department spokeswoman said officials “continue to review our policies and regulations” but would not comment on specific companies. Huawei and Qualcomm declined to comment. Bloomberg and the Financial Times spoke ahead of the move.
Chinese spokesman Mao Ning said China opposes the United States abusing the common sense of national security to suppress Chinese enterprises.
The move “violates the principles of the market economy and the rules of international trade and finance, and hurts the confidence of the international community in the American business environment and the strength of technology. ,” Mao said at a press conference in Beijing on Tuesday.
A person familiar with the matter said that US officials are developing a new policy for sending goods to Huawei that will include goods below the 5G level, including 4G Wi-Fi products. 6 and 7, artificial intelligence, and computing and the cloud. item.
Another person said the move is expected to reflect Biden’s tough handling of Huawei policy over the past year. Licenses for 4G chips that cannot be used for 5g, which may have been approved earlier, are being revoked, the people said. At the end of the Trump administration and the beginning of the Biden administration, officials continued to issue licenses for goods related to 4G applications.
U.S. officials placed Huawei on a trade blacklist in 2019 that bars most U.S. suppliers from supplying goods and technology to the company unless a license is issued. Officials continued to tighten restrictions to cut Huawei’s ability to buy or design the semiconductor chips that power most of its products.
But US officials granted licenses that allow Huawei to obtain certain products. For example, suppliers to Huawei have received licenses worth $61 billion to sell to the mobile equipment market from April to November 2021.
In December, Huawei reported $91.53 billion in revenue, the lowest since 2021 when its sales fell by a third.
Commentary by Chavi Mehta in Bengaluru, Stephen Nellis in San Francisco, Alexandra Alper and Karen Freifeld in Washington, and Yew Lun Tian in Beijing; Additional reporting by David Kirton in Shenzhen; Edited by Shailesh Kuber, Stephen Coates and Louise Heavens
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