The US government has ceased approving licenses for US companies that are exporting items to China’s Huawei, as per recent reports.
For several years, Huawei has faced export restrictions in the US around items for 5G and other technologies, but some American firms have been granted licenses by the US Department of Commerce, to sell certain goods and technologies to the company. A Reuters report quoted a Commerce Department spokesperson saying that officials “continually assess our policies and regulations”.
According to the report, US officials under the Biden administration are creating a new formal policy of denial for shipping items to Huawei that would include items below the 5G level, including 4G items, Wifi 6 and 7, artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, and cloud items. 4G chip licenses could not be used for 5G.
Back in 2019, American officials placed Huawei on a trade blacklist, restricting most of the country’s suppliers from shipping goods and technology to the company without licenses. The move was to cut off the company’s ability to buy or design the semiconductor chips that power most of its products. However, US officials granted licenses that allowed the Chinese tech giant to receive some products.
In December, Huawei said its overall revenue was about $91.53 billion, down from 2021 when US sanctions caused its sales to fall by nearly a third.
